Synopsis:
It was 1860 and according to that year’s census, there were more than four million slaves in the United States. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln would issue an executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, applicable to more than three million of them and immediately freeing approximately fifty thousand.
The United States was on the brink of a war that would literally tear it in two. The American West was vast, unsettled, and largely lawless. Social and technological advances were changing the way people lived and related to each other, but times were still hard. Often, there was not enough food and winters were long and brutal.
Author Jan Marquart’s fictional tale is set in an unnamed fledgling town in a part of the American West that would eventually become New Mexico. It is a story of brave settlers struggling to survive and create a new community in a new and untamed land.
Review:
Regardless of whether one accept’s Marquart’s proposition about the inspiration for her work, the result is a mesmerizing and remarkable compilation of life experiences detailing what it was like to live in that time and place. Many of the residents of the small town suffered great hardships, surviving in a rugged land under rustic conditions. Others endured unspeakable tragedies — renegades roamed the countryside and slaves moving West to escape the brutality inflicted upon so many in the South as the Civil War loomed found that they were still not safe.
Without the creative process I don’t know where my soul would go for rejuvenation because when I’m creative I’m linked to God.~ Author Jan Marquart
In successive chapters, the residents relate their stories mostly in first-person narratives drafted in an unembellished, plainspoken, and straight-forward manner that sounds appropriate to the time period and thoroughly authentic, but is almost deceptively eloquent. Some of the stories are harrowing and heartbreaking, others inspiring. Some, such as the story of the girl who wanted to be a boy, are light-hearted, yet earnest.
Among those residents whose stories stand out are those of the blacksmith, as well as his wife, who publishes the town’s newsletter and dreams of the life her unborn daughter will have. The blacksmith is a kind-hearted, compassionate and forgiving man who serves as an example for others. When he eventually finds happiness after suffering the most devastating loss imaginable, the entire town turns out to congratulate and support him. The writer declares, “It was a good day for the town that was trying hard to survive with a handful of good people.”
These stories are now given to you by us in order to give hope for the moments in which we need love and tenderness and to remind human beings about our enormous capacity to meet those needs.~ The Blacksmith in Voices From the Land
As in any small town, the preacher figures prominently in the daily lives of the residents. His stories are perhaps the most poignant, and include how he came to learned that the Great Spirit is “the spirit everywhere, all around us,” from his grandfather’s good friend, Wind Eagle. “If you feel alone go to your heart and know the Great Spirit lives in here,” Wind Eagle told the impressionable young man. Later, he taught the preaching about the Great Spirit’s healing power and instructed him that he must, in turn, tell others. When a business associate of his father’s, the blacksmith, came through town, the preacher accepted his invitation to come live in the blacksmith’s town which was in need of a preacher. Leaving his childhood home, the preacher moved to the blacksmith’s town to shepherd his new flock. The preacher observed:
It’s not easy to be the preacher in this town. Hard times either bring people to me for God’s help thinking I have God’s favor for them or they turn the other way because they think no loving God would make so much suffering.
. . . But I go to the hills and get real quiet and only then can I hear the whisper of God. Only then can I go back to town and believe I can offer anything. The whole own town rests on my beliefs, and like the other suffering men, I need more than the eye can see and the body can feel to know God exists for us.
The townspeople don’t see me as one of them. They don’t know that my faith is something I must keep alive. They think my faith comes from God. But my faith is simply the act of staying open to let God in.
Lovers of historical fiction will find themselves unable to put Voices From the Land down until the stories of those characters, along with the other inhabitants, including the Indian, the gossip, the wanderer, the man with the big hat, and the rest. The overarching message of Voices From the Land is the resilience of the human spirit and the need for communion with others because, as the blacksmith relates, “No one’s life story is about just one person because try as we might, we have to connect with people somewhere along our road through life.” Jan Marquart’s readers will find that connecting with the people whose spirits have spoken through her in Voices from the Land is an enriching, life-affirming, and quite memorable experience. I highly recommend Voices From the Land.
Enter to Win an Autographed Copy of Voices from the Land
The comment posted by LuAnn at Reading Frenzy was selected at random and a copy of Voices From the Land is being sent to LuAnn!
26 Comments
The book looks amazing and I’d love to be entered! I adore anything to do with the civil war!!!
kimbers10[at]yahoo[dot]com
i recently got interested in reading historical fiction about the early days of American history. Voices from the Past sounds so good. the description gave me goosebumps!
aobibliophile(at)gmail(dot)com
This book really sounds intriguing. Thanks for the interesting post and the giveaway.
It looks like an interesting story.
mce1011 AT aol DOT com
This sounds like a book both me and my father would enjoy. Thank you so much! edysicecreamlover18ATgmailDOTcom
Would absolutely love to win this book. It sounds very interesting
amhengst at verizon dot net
I was interested from the beginning of the post and then to hear the method of writing this book and turned to fascination. Thank you for sharing about this very interesting book and for the lovely giveaway opportunity.
dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com
I would enjoy reading this book. thanks.
dorcontest at gmail dot com
Great giveaway!!!
gfc follower
vidishamun at gmail dot com
What a great giveaway! I would love to win this book.
I’m a subsriber and a follower via gfc. Please enter me I would love to read about this time in history!
I love reading about this time in our country’s history!
reading_frenzy at yahoo dot com
Wow. This sounds like a great book – and very different from what I usually read. Thanks for the chance to win it!
nicnac63 AT hotmail DOT com
I would like to read about the perspective of settlers making a life for themselves in a wild, untamed land.. It sounds adventurous.
This sounds like an amazing story and I’m looking forward to reading it!
mamabunny13 at gmail dot com
I would really like to read this book, Please enter me
amhengst at verizon dot net
I’ve added this to my reading list it sounds wonderful.
I love historical fiction! This looks great
I would love to read this
This story sounds amazing! I’d love to read this. Thanks!
Margaret
singitm@hotmail.com
This sounds like a great book! Thanks for the giveaway!
nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net
A fascinating book which would be enjoyable. Many thanks.
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“Without the creative process I don’t know where my soul would go for rejuvenation because when I am creative I’m linked to God”. – Jan Marquart
This author comment is what has seriously taken my interest from the cover of this book, to the material inside. I am really looking forward to reading this book.
And such a beautiful cover on “Voices From the Land”
Please enter my name into this giveaway. My email address is: madley (AT) cogeco (DOT) com.
Thank you!
Patricia
The book sounds very interesting. I would love a chance to read it. Thanks for having this giveaway.