East Baton Rouge Parish Library

When winter comes, V. A. Shannon

eng

no index present

fiction

When winter comes

1057734513

V. A. Shannon

Thorndike Press large print historical fiction

It's been 13 years since Mrs. Jacob Klein ran away from her abusive family in Cincinnati at age 15 and joined up with the doomed wagon train bound for California. One of the survivors, Mrs. Klein, is now a schoolteacher married with three daughters, but she's never shared her story with her husband, Jacob. Incensed by sensationalist accounts, she uses her journal to tell the tale of her time as a helper to the much-vilified Kesebergs, the bonds she formed while on the trail, and the horror of finding themselves stranded in a snowy mountain pass with dwindling food supplies. The narrative alternates between Mrs. Klein's journal entries and her life as a wife and mother in California on the cusp of WWI. Shannon's absorbing, exhaustively researched (and fictionalized) account movingly captures the hope and fellowship of the families in the early days of the journey, making their grueling starvation and grim choices even more tragic.