Overview

In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America’s rising eugenics movement – when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin – in this tragic and uplifting novel of social injustice, survival, and hope for readers of Susan Meissner, Kristin Hannah, and Christina Baker Kline.

When Lena Conti—a young, unwed mother—sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned.

Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing “inferior genes.”

After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter—and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.

Review

Lena and her family have arrived at Ellis Island. Lena and her daughter get to stay in America but her mother and brother are returned to Germany. Lena ends up living with her cousin Silas Wolfe. Silas lives on his home place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. But, coming to America is not all that Lena expected.

I cannot express the heartbreak experienced by the characters in this tale. Lena and Silas lost so much because someone thought they knew better. Oh, and how they were lied to! I am trying really hard not to give away a spoiler…READ IT! And understand, this really happened in real life.

Now, this did have a bit of a slow start. But when it takes off…it takes off like a rocket. And trust me, you will not be able to stop. As a reader, you MUST know what happens.

Need a heartbreaking tale you won’t soon forget…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel for a honest review.

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