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To open this novel is to enter 18th-century American history, as Gunning re-creates a Cape Cod whaling village to tell the absorbing story of her determined protagonist, Lyddie Berry. When Lyddie's husband, Edward, leaves on a fishing expedition, it is the last time she will see him alive. Lost at sea, Edward has left Lyddie a widow. But a widow in 18th-century Massachusetts didn't have the rights widows now have, and Lyddie's grief soon turns to smoldering anger as she watches her husband's home and property handed over to her officious son-in-law.
As a widow, Lyddie is entitled to a third of her home and faces a choice: either inhabit that small section or receive a third of the price should her son-in-law sell the house. Shocked by the unfairness of such terms, Lyddie refuses to acquiesce and soon squares off against her son-in-law, alienating herself from her daughter. In short order, Lyddie becomes an outcast. Nearly destitute, she turns to her Indian neighbors for help. In so doing, Lyddie plumbs a newfound strength and tenacity and forges a new life for herself -- a life of unheard-of independence. What is perhaps most fascinating about The Widow's War is the consideration of all that has changed since those early days -- and all that has stayed the same.
(Spring 2006 Selection)
The Red Tent meets The Scarlett Letter in this haunting historical novel set in a colonial New England whaling village.
“When was it that the sense of trouble grew to fear, the fear to certainty? When she sat down to another solitary supper of bread and beer and picked cucumber? When she heard the second sounding of the geese? Or had she known that morning when she stepped outside and felt the wind? Might as well say she knew it when Edward took his first whaling trip to the Canada River, or when they married, or when, as a young girl, she stood on the beach and watched Edward bring about his father's boat in the Point of Rock Channel. Whatever its begetting, when Edward's cousin Shubael Hopkins and his wife Betsey came through the door, they brought her no new grief, but an old acquaintance.”
When Lyddie Berry's husband is lost in a storm at sea, she finds that her status as a widow is vastly changed from that of respectable married woman. Now she is the “dependent” of her nearest male relative-her son-in-law. Refusing to bow to societal pressure that demands she cede everything that she and her husband worked for, Lyddie becomes an outcast from family, friends, and neighbors-yet ultimately discovers a deeper sense of self and, unexpectedly, love.
Evocative and stunningly assured, The Widow's War is an unforgettable work of literary magic, a spellbinding tale from a gifted talent.
The Red Tent meets The Scarlett Letter in this haunting historical novel set in a colonial New England whaling village.
“When was it that the sense of trouble grew to fear, the fear to certainty? When she sat down to another solitary supper of bread and beer and picked cucumber? When she heard the second sounding of the geese? Or had she known that morning when she stepped outside and felt the wind? Might as well say she knew it when Edward took his first whaling trip to the Canada River, or when they married, or when, as a young girl, she stood on the beach and watched Edward bring about his father's boat in the Point of Rock Channel. Whatever its begetting, when Edward's cousin Shubael Hopkins and his wife Betsey came through the door, they brought her no new grief, but an old acquaintance.”
When Lyddie Berry's husband is lost in a storm at sea, she finds that her status as a widow is vastly changed from that of respectable married woman. Now she is the “dependent” of her nearest male relative-her son-in-law. Refusing to bow to societal pressure that demands she cede everything that she and her husband worked for, Lyddie becomes an outcast from family, friends, and neighbors-yet ultimately discovers a deeper sense of self and, unexpectedly, love.
Evocative and stunningly assured, The Widow's War is an unforgettable work of literary magic, a spellbinding tale from a gifted talent.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940177266305 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
Publication date: | 10/06/2020 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |