Showing results by author "Martha Conway" in All Categories

A compelling novel of female perseverance and the role of women in society set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. For readers of Tracey Chevalier and The Second Mrs Thistlewood In a world made for men, can one pioneering woman break free from tradition and walk a new path? It is 1865...

On a humid day in June 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp, 17-year-old Susanna Quiner watches from behind a maple tree as a band of Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With both her parents dead and all the other settlers out in their fields, Susanna makes the rash decision to pursue them herself. What follows is a young woman's quest to find her sisters, and the parallel story of her sisters' new lives.

1838. The Ohio River. May Bedloe is a seamstress to her cousin, the flamboyant actress Comfort Virtue. A wealthy abolitionist and notorious opportunist is quick to lure Comfort to her cause - a cause, it seems, that has no use for quiet little May. Casting out on her own for the first time, May lands a job on Hugo Cushin's wondrous Floating Theatre - a flatboat that sails the Ohio performing plays to the townsfolk along the way. Though shy at first, May quickly finds herself drawn into the eccentric troupe of characters aboard her new home.

When World War II halts ocean travel in 1940, two American sisters find themselves stranded in Ireland— but in different realities. In 18-year-old Gaby's world, Ireland remains neutral, just as history records. But in 17-year-old Sabine's world, Germany has invaded Ireland, and she must survive on the run. Both sisters find refuge at the same remote Irish manor owned by distant relatives. There, for one hour each dusk— "the time of pookies and ghosts" in Celtic lore— their two worlds overlap, and they can be together again.