Austin Returns with a Multi-Generational Historical Novel
Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age seventeen with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she’s asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love.
At the nearby Hotel Ottawa Resort on the shore of Lake Michigan, twenty-three-year-old Anna Nicholson is trying to ease the pain of a broken engagement to a wealthy Chicago banker. But her time of introspection is disturbed after a violent storm aboard a steamship stirs up memories of a childhood nightmare. As more memories and dreams surface, Anna begins to question who she is and whether she wants to return to her wealthy life in Chicago. When she befriends a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer, she finds herself asking him all the questions that have been troubling her.
Neither Geesje nor Anna, who are different in every possible way, can foresee the life-altering surprises awaiting them before the summer ends.
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Summary
Book Title: Waves of Mercy
Book Author: Lynn Austin
What do you like about this book:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?", Anna Nicholson wonders. Adopted into one of Chicago's most elite families, she has begun to ponder who she is and what her future will look like after a broken engagement, the man that she presumed to love forbade her to attend a church where her questions seemed to be answerable, causing a deep rift and regrettably harsh words.
Vacationing in Holland, Michigan with her mother, Anna encounters a young hotel employee, a seminary student, who becomes a dear friend. Away from the immediate pressure of her future, Anna begins to dream about what must have been her past, experiencing nightmares in horrifying detail. Derk Vander Veen's kind words and sincere faith become a balm to Anna's troubled spirit, in spite of the fact that the two are headed in totally different directions, until an unlikely source spills a story of her own.
"Waves of Mercy" is not necessarily an entertaining novel with its deep tones of sadness and melancholy, but it's certainly an edifying story, in the sense that its characters learn to rejoice in the God in whom they trust, not only in the good times but also in the bad, for nothing could ever separate them from His love. It also seemed a little unfinished, but then again, maybe not.
I received this book from the publisher, the opinions expressed are entirely my own.
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