Augusta - by Celia Ryker (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Raised on a hard-knock farm in Arkansas and married off to the father of one of her classmates at the age of thirteen, Augusta was not set up for a life of bliss. Then, abandoned by her second husband in 1920s Detroit, with four children to provide for, she is forced into a decision that will haunt her forever.

From the author of Walking Home, Celia Ryker's Augusta is historical fiction based on the true story of her grandmother, a woman who lived on a lake and taught her how to catch snakes; a woman who fled the hardships of the Ozarks at the turn of the twentieth century for a new city, and a chance at a better life.

Review Quotes

"In this novel inspired by the challenging life of the author's grandmother, a woman is left to raise her four children alone during the 1920s... Smooth-flowing prose carries the tale forward at a steady pace... farm and city vignettes create vivid images of time, place, and economic class, and Augusta emerges as a formidable woman in the face of daunting odds. A historically evocative period drama that's poignant and disquieting."

-Kirkus Reviews

"Augusta is an ideal blend of storytelling and family history, wit and heartache, persistence and vulnerability."

-Shawn T Anderson, former president of League of Vermont Writers