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Solveig
Jorgenson is crushed when her husband, Erik, a Lutheran minister in Norway during World War II, tells her
that he
has had a dream telling them that they must relocate to America.
She
doesn’t believe that he heard from God, but his words are confirmed
when his
brother calls from America
and says he is dying with cancer. He needs Erik to take over his
parsonage.
Solveig immediately begins to prepare for their journey, saying goodbye
to her
friends and family. She learns on the way to America
that she is pregnant. Erik
is overjoyed insisting that she is having a boy that will make them
proud.
However, when they get to America,
and she delivers, she has twins. Anne survives and her baby brother
dies in
childbirth. Anne will never live down the fact that she lived and her
brother
who was destined for greatness, died.
Anne has
disappointed her family numerous times. Her independent nature and the
fact
that she wants to have a career, instead of being a wife and mother,
make her
the object of ridicule from her parents, her brothers and her sisters.
She
never can understand why her parents don’t love her. She has made
countless
efforts to reach out to them, but they never reciprocate, she finally
just
gives up trying. It is obvious that they will never understand her or
her
lifestyle.
Anne’s
daughter Libby also suffers from the fact that her mother’s family
wants
nothing to do with her. As she begins to mature, she questions their
motives
and wonders if she should attempt to get in touch with them. She
wonders if she
should try to get to know the family that never tried to get to know
her. How
can they hate her if they don’t even know her? Can she be the one to
unite this
family that has been so torn apart by their differences in opinions and
lifestyles?
SUMMER’S
CHILD is heartbreaking. The story that unfolds from the first page is
sad, it
tells about a family that exiles their daughter, because they felt like
she was
sinful and they were ignorant to their own sins. Follow the Jorgenson’s
as they
emigrate from Norway
and
begin their new life in America.
Continue their story as Anne finds her independence and makes her own
way in
the fashion world. End their story with Libby and her attempts to
reunite her
mother’s estranged family, and the final culmination that ends where it
started,
in the family home of Norway.
SUMMER’S CHILD is a poignant, emotional story about the mistakes that
families
make and the efforts it takes to overcome them. I enjoyed every page,
even
though it upset me so much to read it sometimes, that I wanted to put
it down.
There are times when the reader will love and hate every character in
the book.
After you read this book, you will feel like you have been on an
emotional
roller coaster that will leave you emotionally charged, yet completely
satisfied.
Reviewed by Ansley
Velarde for The
Road to Romance
August 23, 2004
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