Emma's Gift
A Novel
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4.8 • 17 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In Leisha Kelly's well-received novel, Julia's Hope, Samuel and Julia Wortham and their two children charmed readers as they found shelter in the home-and heart-of a grandmotherly woman named Emma Graham.
Now, in Emma's Gift, the Wortham family is struck down by the deaths of two close friends, including their neighbor Wilametta Hammond, just days before Christmas 1931. Wila is the mother of ten children and the glue that holds the family together. In his grief, her husband, George, ignores the children and has no will to live. Sam and Julia step in to help, but how can they manage ten extra children when they barely have enough for themselves? Can George overcome his grief and become the father his children need? And if Emma's nephew takes ownership of her land, will the Worthams be allowed to stay?
Masterfully told from the perspective of both Samuel and Julia, Emma's Gift is an unforgettable story of God's faithfulness and peace and of the seasons of life that shape each of us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her sequel to Julia's Hope, Kelly once again offers a compellingly simple tale of faith, hardship and community during the Great Depression. Using two points of view those of Julia Wortham and her husband, Samuel Kelly unfolds a series of events that will leave Julia with more questions about her faith than answers. As her neighbor Wilametta Hammond draws her last breaths, Julia despairs of understanding how a God of love could allow Wilametta to die. More unexpected chaos follows. With Wilametta's 10 children motherless and George Hammond deranged with grief, Julia and Samuel try to pick up the pieces, caring for the children as best they can. But, "We were all broken. Beyond repair, it seemed," muses Julia. "And about to face God's own Christmas without a reason to rejoice." God is in the details in Kelly's novel from the depictions of how a Depression-era rural Illinois community handles death to her competent regional dialogue. Her characters are multifaceted, including a non-Christian who is particularly endearing (although an expected conversion scene promptly follows). A few didactic passages at the end of the book summarize the message for readers, rather than letting them draw their own conclusions ("I found it's not so hard to love the unlovable..."). However, Kelly's warm descriptions of how friends prop each other up in the midst of devastating circumstances strike just the right note of redemption and hope, which should endear this novel to CBA fiction fans.
