This is a gem of a book, telling the story about knowing and understanding, about past hurt and present secrets told in a beautiful, rich prose. – Janka, Goodreads Does it really matter where you come from? In 1953, a war widow’s difficult mother dies before revealing the identity of her daughter’s father and his cultural heritage. As Dee sorts through what little her mother left, she unearths puzzling clues that raise more questions: Why did Leora send money every month to the Basque Relief Agency? Why is her own daughter so secretive about her soon-to-be published book? And what does an Anglican priest know that he isn’t telling? All of this head-spinning mystery breaks a long, dry period in Dee’s life and leads her to embark on an odyssey. She might just as well lose her job and see where the counsel of her new spiritual advisor and the attentions of an enigmatic ex-coworker lead her. The Sheep Walker’s Daughter pairs a colorful Basque immigrant history of loss, survival, and tough choices with one woman’s search for identity and fulfillment. Dee’s journey will take her through the Northern and Central California valleys of the 1950s and reach across the world to the Basque Country. Along the way, she will discover who she is and why family history matters. "The Sheep Walker's Daughter is a novel about delving into the past ....It is also a novel about getting to know God and oneself better." – Julia, Goodreads "Their lives are changed in substantive ways and as readers, we are made the better as we bear witness to the lives of these two women who undergo a powerful transformative journey that allows them to embrace the richly woven tapestry of their unique cultural and generational identities. Their hard-won wisdom becomes an irrepressible summons to all of us to live spirited, authentic lives." –Calder, Goodreads Enjoy the beauty of a story by Sydney Avey The Sheep Walker's Daughter The Lyre and the Lambs The Trials of Nellie Belle Sydney Avey’s debut novel, The Sheep Walker’s Daughter, is an absolute treasure. Set in the years just after WWII, it’s a story of mothers and daughters and sisters, all members of one family and yet all isolated by both physical and emotional distance. Avey’s characters are compelling and deftly drawn. – Jan Goodreads The Sheep Walker's Daughter is a novel about delving into the past ....It is also a novel about getting to know God and oneself better.– Julia, Goodreads Lives are changed in substantive ways and as readers, we are made the better as we bear witness to the lives of these two women who undergo a powerful transformative journey that allows them to embrace the richly woven tapestry of their unique cultural and generational identities. Their hard-won wisdom becomes an irrepressible summons to all of us to live spirited, authentic lives. –Calder, Goodreads The plot was interwoven with provoking insights into conflicting differences between two people of different cultures seeking the American Dream in CA, that ultimately included life choice decisions that divided their family with secrecy and isolation. – Sandra, Goodreadss I found myself rereading passages just to hear the way the words blended together to paint a wonderful word picture. Sydney Avey has a real gift for creating such wonderful imagery with her words. Avey is also gifted in her ability to take many plot lines and weave them together into a wonderful story. – Shari, Goodreads The Sheep Walker's Daughter explores complex relationships between richly developed characters. I loved the bits of wisdom, poetic analogies, and unexpected twists. It was a pleasure unraveling this family saga set between the Basque region and California’s Central Valley. The book’s give and take theme lingers beyond the final page.– April, Goodreads I have always wondered how an author is able to weave many intricate details seamlessly into a compelling story. Such is the case with The Sheep Walker’s Daughter. – Shari, Goodreads I loved this book – it was a great story and a real page-turner. I couldn’t put it down! – Susan, Goodreads I enjoyed this book so much. I actually found many parallels to my own life; the secrets that families keep, as well as the realization that through the generations, we're probably more alike than we think. – Lisa, Goodreads This is a gem of a book, telling the story about knowing and understanding, about past hurt and present secrets told in a beautiful, rich prose. – Janka, Goodreads The Sheep Walker's Daughter is a novel about delving into the past ....It is also a novel about getting to know God and oneself better. – Julia, Goodreads I hope The Sheep Walker's Daughter gets the accolades it deserves. – Marie, Goodreads Sydney’s genre is not a part of my normal reading diet, but her first book captured my imagination and left me wanting more.- The Rt. Rev. Douglas B. Weiss, Goodreads
What was it like for a mother to flee slavery, leaving her children behind? To Free a Family tells the remarkable story of Mary Walker, who in August 1848 fled her owner for refuge in the North and spent the next seventeen years trying to recover her family. Her freedom, like that of thousands who escaped from bondage, came at a great price—remorse at parting without a word, fear for her family’s fate. This story is anchored in two extraordinary collections of letters and diaries, that of her former North Carolina slaveholders and that of the northern family—Susan and Peter Lesley—who protected and employed her. Sydney Nathans’s sensitive and penetrating narrative reveals Mary Walker’s remarkable persistence as well as the sustained collaboration of black and white abolitionists who assisted her. Mary Walker and the Lesleys ventured half a dozen attempts at liberation, from ransom to ruse to rescue, until the end of the Civil War reunited Mary Walker with her son and daughter. Unlike her more famous counterparts—Harriet Tubman, Harriet Jacobs, and Sojourner Truth—who wrote their own narratives and whose public defiance made them heroines, Mary Walker’s efforts were protracted, wrenching, and private. Her odyssey was more representative of women refugees from bondage who labored secretly and behind the scenes to reclaim their families from the South. In recreating Mary Walker’s journey, To Free a Family gives voice to their hidden epic of emancipation and to an untold story of the Civil War era.
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