This Promised Land
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
When she ran away as a young war bride, she was cut off from her family forever . . . or so she believed. Decades later, maybe the only way to move on is to go home.
Ginny Pickering Boyden can't wait for her last day of work, when she'll be free to pursue a lifelong ambition through a master gardener apprenticeship. But an unexpected letter brings shocking news: Ginny has inherited her family's Christmas tree farm, a dream she'd long ago given up.
Facing a past laced with memories and lies she's tried hard to bury, a furious nephew who thought the land would be his, and a failing farm with a mountain of debt, Ginny returns to New Scrivelsby, Virginia, determined to sell. But when her younger nephew, a Vietnam vet, appears with demons of his own and three young children in tow, Ginny isn't sure what to do. Too much of their story reminds Ginny of her own. She has little hope, however, that three generations of warring Pickerings can set aside their differences to restore all that's broken, both on the land and in their hearts.
Set against the beautiful and rugged landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains, This Promised Land is the story of a daughter's longing to make sense of the past and of the unbreakable bonds that bring prodigals home.
• A modern take on the prodigal son story, written by a four-time Christy award–winning author
• Contains discussion questions ideal for book clubs
"History buffs looking for deep writing and character development will want to add Gohlke to their lists. Recommend to fans of Lisa Wingate, Amanda Dykes, and Valerie Fraser Luesse." Library Journal, on Ladies of the Lake
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A retiree contends with the ghosts of her painful past in this moving tale of second chances from Gohlke (Ladies of the Lake). At 16, Ginny Pickering ran away from her family's Christmas tree farm to marry farmhand Curtis Boyden. She's been estranged from her family ever since. Nearly five decades later, she gets word from an attorney that she's inherited the tree farm following her brother Harold's death, but upon returning home she learns that his ill-advised business deals have sunk the farm so deeply into debt that few options remain but to sell. Things get more complicated when Harold's cash-strapped son Mark and his three young children show up. Ginny convinces her grandnephews to help improve the land so she can sell it at a high price. In the process, she becomes increasingly enmeshed in the family's struggles. She forms an especially close bond with Mark, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from PTSD like Ginny's late WWII vet husband. Just as Ginny starts to wonder whether God is calling her to fight to save the land, a shocking discovery threatens the future of the farm and the Pickering family itself. Gohlke sensitively highlights the far-reaching effects of PTSD and family trauma, imbuing the plot with emotional resonance while leaving room for the promise of hope and renewal. Readers will find this tough to forget.
