Frank Carlson Library

With little left to tie her to her home state of Texas and yearning for a slower life, Yvonne Wilson jumps at the chance to shake things up with a move to Montgomery, Indiana. A dream job awaits her-managing an Amish bookstore for her good friends Jake and Eva. Besides the slow-paced setting and the comfort of beloved books, Yvonne hopes the change will help distract her from the emptiness she feels after the death of her fiancé. No longer a part...

Reverend John Ames is dying in 1956 in Gilead, Iowa. Glory Boughton has returned to care for her dying father and soon her brother, Jack, the prodigal son, comes home, too. As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets. In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's...

"It's 1943, and Miriam Coblentz and Henry Mast are nearing their wedding day when the unthinkable happens--Henry is drafted. However, since he is a part of the pacifist Amish tradition, Henry is sent to a conscientious objector Civilian Public Service camp. When he leaves for the work camp, his gaping absence turns Miriam's life upside down. Little does she know it's only the beginning... When Henry returns home, he brings news that shakes Miriam...

This is the story of a German who hated the Germans, the pacifist who changed his mind, the ambivalent Zionist who was asked to head the Israeli state, and the physicist who believed in God. He was one of the greatest contradictions of our times.