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By Della Parker. 2016
'Brims with laughs, love, family and friendship. You will love this heartwarming read!' Trisha Ashley. Meet the Reading Group: six…
women in the seaside village of Little Sanderton come together every month to share their love of reading. No topic is off-limits: books, family, love and loss . . . and don't forget the glass of red!Grace knows that the holiday season is going to be different this year. No turkey, no tinsel, no gorgeously wrapped gifts under the tree . . . how on earth is she going to break it to her little boys that Christmas is effectively cancelled? And can she bear to tell anyone her embarrassing secret? Enter the Reading Group: Grace's life might have turned upside down but there's no problem they can't solve.By Linda Byler. 2018
A heartwarming tale of longing and hope in Lancaster by bestselling author Linda Byler Elsie is desperate for a horse…
of her own, but her family barely has enough money to get by as it is—she knows they can’t afford to buy a horse, never mind pay for the grain and hay to keep it fed through the winter. With her father injured, it’s up to Elsie to help earn money for the family—while going to school and helping Mam with the other kids. So she buries herself in the daily tasks at hand and tries to forget her longing. But when her classmate Elam invites her to visit his family’s horse farm one afternoon, she willfully forgets her responsibilities at home and follows him. Exhilarated by the strong, sleek Morgans and the musty smell of the barn, her passion for horses is reignited. As Elsie spends more time at Elam’s farm, it becomes harder and harder to be the responsible young woman her parents expect her to be. Why should she have to work as a maud to earn money for her family when Elam gets to spend every afternoon riding? It isn’t fair, and to make matters worse, now she’s expected to go to singings and play games with the other youth who are old enough to start dating, when all she wants is to be out riding. It’s a waste of time, she figures—it’s not like any of the boys will want a poor, rebellious girl like her anyway. As she struggles to reconcile her anger and frustration with the obedience her Amish faith requires, she also starts to have confusing feelings for Elam. She’s determined not to like him in that way. After all, he only sees her as free labor, someone to muck out stalls and work the horses. Doesn’t he? When tragedy strikes in the Amish community, Elsie is forced to let go of her teenage angst and grow up quickly. But sometimes letting go of one’s desires has a way of allowing one to accept something even better. A tale of longing, desperation, and finally hope, this is a heartwarming Christmas tale to be remembered.By Linda Byler. 2017
One Christmas morning, while young Amish twins Henry and Harvey are sledding, they find a big black dog wandering in…
a field. They adopt the Newfoundland and name him Lucky, and he soon becomes their best friend and playmate. When tragedy strikes and Harvey drowns in a spring creek, Henry’s only source of comfort is his furry companion. To make matters worse, the Depression is especially hard on Henry’s parents who have more children than they can care for. He is sent to live with another family, where he becomes enchanted with Katie Stoltzfus. Eventually, Lucky passes away, leaving a hole in Henry’s heart, and he wonders if he will ever find another friend as faithful and loving. As Henry grows up, he has other dogs, but none are as special as the Newfoundland he and his brother once cherished. When Katie marries another man, it seems Henry will never be happy again. Every passing Christmas reminds him of the people and animal friends now missing from his life. Though, no holiday story is complete without a miracle. In A Dog for Christmas, bestselling author Linda Byler delivers a beautiful Christmas story of quiet triumph in the face of lifelong adversity. After years of loneliness and longing, Henry is finally rewarded with a hard-won love, a family to call his own, and a new best friend. Could there possibly be a better gift than that?By Linda Byler. 2018
A hopeful story of unexpected love in the midst of illness, pain, and family conflict John is the youngest of…
seven boys and is constantly overshadowed by his big brothers who seem to all be stronger, smarter, and better looking than he is. As a teenager, he knows he’s overweight and is sure he’ll never be popular like his brothers are. But those struggles are nothing compared to the battle he is about to fight. After weeks of feeling exhausted, depressed, and achy, he has no idea what’s wrong with him and begins to wonder if he’ll be miserable for the rest of his life. By the time he is finally diagnosed with Lyme disease, his body is failing and his spirits are nearly at rock bottom. John’s parents and brothers try to help him, but as weeks turn into months with no real sign of improvement, the illness begins to take its toll on all of them. Minor disagreements turn into angry fights and old hurts surface amidst uncertainty and exhaustion. The Amish family that was once so tightly knit is unraveling before John’s eyes. When John’s older brother Samuel begins dating Lena Zook—John’s eighth grade teacher—he tries to be happy for them, but it’s hard not to feel jealous. With all his health issues, John figures he’ll be lucky if he makes it through rumschpringe at all; he doesn’t dare hope to date anyone as lovely and smart and fun as Lena is. Determined not to continue burdening his family, John begins to discover a quiet inner strength, even as his body falters. Recovery seems far off, but he nurtures a glimmer of hope that God has not forgotten him. And is it his imagination, or is Lena starting to spend more time with him than she’s spending with Samuel? Torn between following his heart and the fear of tearing his family apart even more, John’s struggles seem to only get more complicated, even as that glimmer of hope fans into flame.By Linda Byler. 2018
Hannah, feisty and independent as ever, has put everything into building up her family’s homestead in North Dakota. Despite tragedy…
and almost unimaginable hardship due to the Great Depression, unpredictable weather, and unforgiving landscape, she and her new husband Jerry are leading their Amish friends and family in their homesteading venture. When the winter storms and the untimely death of a child become too much for the rest of the community to bear, they move back east. But Hannah and Jerry stay on, doggedly pursuing Hannah’s dreams of a successful ranch. But even Jerry’s spirits begin to fail and when a flag of grasshoppers destroys every last morsel of vegetation after yet another drought, Hannah finally relents and they too return to the fertile soil of Pennsylvania, where life will be safe and predictable. Or so they think, but when tragedy strikes again, Hannah is suddenly a widow, in a place that no longer feels like home and with family who cannot grasp the depth of the losses she has experienced. Hannah grapples with her faith, struggling to understand who she is and where she belongs. Always before, a flash of anger or defiance had fueled her strong will in the face of adversity and allowed her to push on toward her goals. But what did she have left to fight for now? Slowly, painfully, her heart begins to change. As she begins to reclaim her faith and her strong sense of self, she also starts to notice a handsome, burly man who is unlike anyone she’s known before. Is it possible she could find love again in Lancaster? What will it take for her to feel like she’s home, like she finally belongs somewhere?By Linda Byler. 2017
Hannah, a feisty young Amish woman, lives on her family’s farm in North Dakota. After moving halfway across the country…
and struggling to land on their feet, Hannah’s family is finally feeling settled. The cattle business is doing well, and other Amish families have moved into the area.Feeling betrayed by Clay Jenkins and unimpressed with her own father, Hannah is hesitant to trust the men around her. Jerry Riehl, intrigued by her intelligence and strong will, will try anything to earn Hannah’s respect.Just as the local Amish community begins to thrive, a terrible drought befalls the plains. Hannah’s family tries to remain hopeful, but the continuing drought and a windmill fire devastate their business and the community. Running out of options, the Amish families decide to move back to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Hannah is faced with difficult decisions: Should she stay in North Dakota or follow the others to Lancaster? Does Jerry deserve her trust?By Linda Byler. 2016
Hester, the startlingly beautiful Native American who was rescued as an infant by an Amish couple, now lives in downtown…
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She shares a house with Bappie King, another Amish woman, living their independent lives in the fast-growing mid-18th-century city. Bappie runs a highly successful stand at the downtown farmers market; Hester is Bappie’s assistant when she isn’t out in the city nursing desperately sick children and their impoverished parents with her tinctures, teas, and rubs.And then one day, Noah comes back; Noah, the first child born to Hans and Kate Zug, the Amish couple who had welcomed Hester during their childless years.Both Hester and Noah are refugees from this Amish family gone awry. Both were victims of Hans’ deep attraction to the lovely Hester. Two hurt souls, they have each had their own adult troubles. Noah left his family and the Amish to join the War. Hester is the widow of William King, an Amish man who was determined to possess his wife and dictate her life.When Noah invites Hester to join him on a visit to their childhood home, Hester can no longer ignore her buried anger at her adopted father or her bitterness toward Annie, his second wife. Nor can Hester deny the tempting thrill of spending time with the steady but sensitive Noah, who since childhood showed special care for Hester.Hester and Noah both know that the visit home will force them to face blistering questions: Can they possibly forgive their ill father, Hans, for his misplaced love for Hester and his utter neglect of Noah? Can Hester and Noah risk marriage, especially if they can’t forgive Hans? Can Hester trust herself-and Noah-enough to marry again after her failed marriage to William?Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Linda Byler. 2016
Born a Native American, but brought up Amish, Hester Zug, at age 20, flees her Amish home. Her father’s too-tender…
care of her has made her stepmother wildly jealous, and so Hester sets off, knowing only that she can’t stay. Hester’s natural instincts for navigating the forests in colonial Pennsylvania along with the book of medicines and remedies given to her by an aged Native American woman allow her to survive until she gets sick from drinking river water.Twice rescued-first by matronly Indian women who find her unconscious in the woods, and then by a boy in downtown Lancaster, where she’d been left for dead by the dreaded Paxton boys-Hester finds herself in the kind, if rough, hands of Emma Ferree. Because of her wide heart, Ferree, a widow, offers her home to fugitives.The dazzlingly beautiful Hester eventually marries an Amish man, who is more in love with the way she looks than with her heart and mind. And when that childless marriage falters, she is met one day in the fields by Running Bear, a Native American brave who has watched her for years. He asks her to marry him, giving her until wintertime to decide.Belonging in part to two worlds, but experiencing a subtle yet clear rejection from both, Hester comes to wish that her Amish mother, Kate, had never rescued her.Author Linda Byler shows the lovely and enduring Hester caring for others as the Amish do, with the use of Native American remedies and tinctures from the old woman’s book. Her practices raise accusations of witchcraft from the very people she sets out to help. Byler, an active member of the Amish, centers this second book in the Hester's Hunt for Home series on two anguishing questions: Where is Hester’s heart most at home? And can she ever be married happily?Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Linda Byler. 2016
Sadie Miller didn't know what to expect when her family left Ohio for the small Montana Amish settlement-certainly not horse…
thieves, mysterious men, or her family falling apart. Can Sadie find her place in this wild, Western community, far from the familiar-and discover love along the way?Wild Horses, Book 1: Sadie Miller is adjusting to life at Aspen East Ranch when Ezra appears. Perfect in every way and fully intending to marry Sadie, Ezra seems like a dream, but does Sadie love him? And who is this fascinating Mark who helps to rescue a dying horse and shows up at the Amish hymn-sing, though he is English? Now Sadie's own close-knit family is falling apart. Mam claims her head is cluttered and unclear. The worst part is, Dat refuses to acknowledge Mam's struggles. Sadie finds some refuge in Nevaeh, a black-and-white paint. But when a dreadful accident involving wild horses occurs, Sadie must move forward into the unknown.Keeping Secrets, Book 2: There's horse trouble in Montana again. Only this time, horses aren't being stolen, they're being shot. No hard-working ranch horse or Amish horse and buggy is safe. Sadie's heart is still set on Mark, despite warnings from concerned friends. Then Daniel appears-a visitor from Lancaster County. With cornflower-blue eyes and a strong, square jaw, he is everything that Mark is not. Why, Sadie wonders desperately, are there so many secrets?The Disappearances, Book 3: Sadie may be married now, but she's as spirited as ever. Soon after she and Mark are settled into the farmhouse, she's visited by three FBI agents who question her about the two children who mysteriously appeared one day at the Ranch. Before the agents leave, they warn Sadie that her beloved horse, Paris, is highly valuable, and that she and Mark may be in grave danger. This news, on top of Mark's unexpected black moods, leaves Sadie confused and disillusioned. Mercifully, healing and courage reappear in unexpected times and places in this concluding volume of the Sadie's Montana series.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Linda Byler. 2014
A romance novel based on true experiences from an Amish writer! Everything has led up to this moment in Lizzie…
Glick's life. All of her curiosity, concern, and dreams have pointed to this time when she must make some very big decisions. Will she join the church? Will she continue teaching? Will she marry Stephen? Questions and indecision as well as answers and certainty enter Lizzie's life in Big Decisions, the third and final novel in this series written by an Amish author and based on true life experiences. Her sisters, Emma and Mandy, seem so certain that Joshua and John are their perfect matches. Does Lizzie really want to get married anyway? Does Stephen? Lizzie loves Stephen, but sometimes they disagree about everything, from their future to how to spend their Saturday afternoons. What happens if they get married? Can Lizzie find a way to respect Stephen's opinions without giving up too much? Lizzie thinks she's ready to join the Amish church. But she has so many questions. Can she really find happiness within her community? Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction-novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Linda Byler. 2019
How long will Edna have to wait for the love of her life? For years, Edna Miller has found herself…
drawn to Emery Hoschtettler with an attraction she can explain no better than she can put a stop to it. Other suitors come and go, but none make her feel the way she feels around Emery—that incredible floating feeling, as if she was walking on air, mixed with a painful desperation to be ever nearer to him. Despite the fact that Emery seldom seems to pay her much attention, she decides it would be unfair to marry anyone else when her heart longs only for him. He hasn’t seriously dated anyone else either, so perhaps he’s just waiting for the right time to ask her . . . By the time Edna is twenty-nine, most of her family and friends have given up hope of her ever marrying. Why she didn’t give that nice man Jonathan more of a chance was beyond them. Sure, he had a bit of a limp from the tractor accident, but he was kind as could be, not to mention wealthy. Was she so vain that she could only judge based on outward appearances? Well then, she could go ahead and be a maud for the rest of her life, cooking and cleaning for other families. When Emery finally asks Edna out, she can hardly contain her joy. Everything is coming together—God is rewarding her patience! Her family will understand why she could never settle for anyone else. But what if Emery isn’t the man Edna was so sure he was? Is there something he’s hiding, or is Edna simply unable to accept true love after so many years of waiting? Would God really lead her all this way, just to leave her alone again?By Linda Byler. 2019
A Heartwarming Christmas Romance Set During the Great Depression It’s 1931, and times are tough for the Miller family, who…
are raising eight children in the midst of the Great Depression. When Eli Miller passes away unexpectedly, and then a fire destroys their barn, Annie has no idea how she’ll make ends meet. The Amish community rallies around her and the children, as is their custom, but as days turn into weeks and then into months, Annie’s friends and neighbors return to their own routines and seem to expect Annie to do the same. Annie knows she needs to stay strong for the children and figure out a way to keep everyone warm and clothed and fed, but she is heartbroken and exhausted. She reminds herself that God will provide, but every day feels like an uphill battle. When Annie receives a letter from a widower with six children of his own, she tries to put it out of her mind. Her critical mother reminds her that it's too soon to start a new friendship with a man, and warns her that blending a family will be complicated. In the weeks and months to follow, Annie must learn to make her own decisions—and accept the consequences, good and bad—face her past, and embark on a new journey that will transform her and her large, complicated family. When life seems especially complicated one summer, she finds herself saying that by Christmas everything will start to come together, but she has no idea the challenges—and ultimately blessings—headed her way.By Tiffany McDaniel. 2020
'Breahtaking'Vogue'So engrossing! Betty is a page-turning Appalachian coming-of-age story steeped in Cherokee history, told in undulating prose that settles right…
into you'Naoise Dolan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times 'I felt consumed by this book. I loved it, you will love it' Daisy Johnson, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Everthing Under'I loved Betty: I fell for its strong characters and was moved by the story it portrayed' Fiona Mozley, Booker Prize shortlisted author of Elmet 'A girl comes of age against the knife.' So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit is one of poverty and violence - both from outside the family and also, devastatingly, from within. When her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, Betty has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters in her rural town of Breathed, Ohio.Despite the hardship she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all she bears witness to, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.A heartbreaking yet magical story, Betty is a punch-in-the-gut of a novel - full of the crushing cruelty of human nature and the redemptive power of words. 'Not a story you will soon forget' Karen Joy Fowler, Booker Prize shortlisted author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves 'Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive' Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow ChildBy Alistair Macleod. 2004
The story is simple, seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy. As an adult he remembers the way things…
were back home on the farm on the west coast of Cape Breton. The time was the 1940s, but the hens and the cows and the pigs and the sheep and the horse made it seem ancient. The family of six children excitedly waits for Christmas and two-year-old Kenneth, who liked Halloween a lot, asks, “Who are you going to dress up as at Christmas? I think I’ll be a snowman.” They wait especially for their oldest brother, Neil, working on “the Lake boats” in Ontario, who sends intriguing packages of “clothes” back for Christmas. On Christmas Eve he arrives, to the delight of his young siblings, and shoes the horse before taking them by sleigh through the woods to the nearby church. The adults, including the narrator for the first time, sit up late to play the gift-wrapping role of Santa Claus. The story is simple, short and sweet, but with a foretaste of sorrow. Not a word is out of place. Matching and enhancingthe text are black and white illustrations by Peter Rankin, making this book a perfect little gift. For readers from nine to ninety-nine, our classic Christmas story by one of our greatest writers.By Davide Longo. 2010
A chillingly plausible novel about the collapse of Italian society and one man's struggle to retain his humanity amid the…
horror"A bleak, lyrical tale that evokes Cormac McCarthy's The Road.... Gruesome, intense, and strange... a eurozone nightmare brought to life on the page."--James Lovegrove, Financial TimesIt is 2025, and Italy is on the brink of collapse. Borders are closed, banks withhold money, the postal service stalls. Armed gangs of drug-fuelled youths roam the countryside. Leonardo was a famous writer and professor before a sex scandal ended his marriage and career. Heading north in search of her new husband, his ex-wife leaves their daughter and her son in his care. If he is to take them to safety, he will need to find a quality he has never possessed: courage.By Dany Laferrière. 2009
"An affecting meditation on loss and exile" ANGEL GURRIA-QUINTANA, Financial TimesWindsor Laferrière left Haiti in fear of his life. He…
has lived in Montreal for thirty-three years, and when his father dies in New York, himself an exile for half a century, Windsor travels there to attend the funeral, and then back to Haiti to inform his mother of the death. In Haiti, Windsor is faced with the grim truth of life in his homeland - the endemic poverty, the thwarted ambitions and broken dreams. But only here can he become a writer again . . .The Enigma of the Return lives where fiction, poetry and autobiography meet. These creative tensions sustain a narrative of astonishing beauty, clarity and insight."Looks set to become one of the great poetic statements of homesickness and return . . . It should be read by all exiles everywhere" Ian Thomson, Independent"A poetic, melancholic tour de force . . . a compelling, intense, stark and poignant exploration of living life as an outsider . . . The great Haitian novel" Jo Lateu, New InternationalistBy Elizabeth Hay. 2011
In a small prairie school in 1929, Connie Flood helps a backward student, Michael Graves, learn how to read. Observing…
them and darkening their lives is the principal, Parley Burns, whose strange behaviour culminates in an attack so disturbing its repercussions continue to the present day. Connie's niece, Anne, tells the story. Impelled by curiosity about her dynamic, adventurous aunt and her more conventional mother, she revisits Connie's past and her mother's broken childhood. In the process she unravels the enigma of Parley Burns and the mysterious, and unrelated, deaths of two young girls.By Evelio Rosero. 2009
When Father Almida is summoned to an audience with the parish's principal benefactor, a stand-in is found in Father Matamoros,…
a drunkard with an angel's voice whose sung mass is mesmerizing to all. But Matamoros hides a darker side, and when the church's residents throw a feast for him he encourages them to lose all their inhibitions and give free reign to their most Bacchanalian desires. A satire on the iniquities of the Catholic church in Colombia, Good Offices is at once comic, surreal and startling, a novel that will linger long in the mind.By Otto De Kat. 2018
"He was a Fula. I say 'was', because I haven't seen him for a long time. I don't know if…
he's still alive or where he might be. He just disappeared."Maria is independent, unconventional and unafraid. She is trying to find an explanation for the disappearance of Ishmael, a refugee from Sierra Leone who came to her door as a newspaper boy and stayed for seven years. He was like a son to her. Vincent is a psychologist. Once he and Maria had an all-encompassing relationship, but since their break-up he has been living in a kind of haze. One day, Maria asks for his help. In the encounters that follow, Ishmael is pushed into the background by a rekindling of the old love between Vincent and Maria. The stories and memories that resurface come to replace the sadness at the loss of the boy. But despite the distraction of their new situation, Ishmael proves impossible to forget.Otto de Kat is known for concise novels that are beautifully observed, subtle and precise, and Freetown is no exception. Translated from the Dutch by Laura WatkinsonBy Philippe Claudel. 2005
Traumatized by memories of his war-ravaged country, his son and daughter-in-law dead, Monsieur Linh travels to a foreign land to…
bring the child in his arms to safety. To begin with, he is too afraid to leave the refugee centre, but the first time he braves the freezing cold to walk the streets of this strange, fast-moving town, he encounters Monsieur Bark, a widower whose dignified sorrow mirrors his own. Though they have no shared language, an instinctive friendship is forged; but Monsieur Linh's stay in the dormitory is only temporary. Sooner or later he and his child must find a permanent home.Delicate and restrained, but with an extraordinary twist, Monsieur Linh and His Child is an immensely moving novel of perfect simplicity, by the author of Brodeck's Report.