Gilead's Physician - by Linda Bennett Pennell (Paperback)

About the Book

Called to medicine, Dr. James Buchanan serves his 1890s rural Appalachian community with deep dedication and consummate skill. What he does not foresee are demands that he confront incompetence, evil, and a worldwide pandemic.

Book Synopsis

Born to a farming family, James knows plowing the soil must not be his destiny. He feels the call to care for the people of his isolated mountain community. After graduating from medical school in 1890, he returns to his north Georgia valley, marries beautiful Mary Alice Campbell, and begins what he thinks will be the ordinary life of a country doctor. What he could not have foreseen are demands that he draw deeply from the well of courage to save his people from gross incompetence, exceptional evil, and a worldwide pandemic.

In the tradition of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, James is an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. His calling to medicine is his greatest strength and his Achilles Heel. It is the driving force in his and Mary Alice's lives, even when the consequences are bittersweet. How each of these very human people comes to terms with its impact is the heart of Gilead's Physician.

Review Quotes

Finalist in The Writer's League of Texas Manuscript Contest

"Author Linda Bennett Pennell has a real knack for recreating history in fantastic detail, vividly capturing the hardships and gritty life of rural 19th-century Georgia. As she plunges readers into this richly detailed world, the practical and educational material, such as the depiction of early medical practices and the struggle against injustices in society, also feels authentic and well-researched. This gives us a great foundation to meet original characters who feel like real people from history, and James and Mary Alice are beautifully written figures whose love and devotion make the story deeply touching...Pennell's close narration shows us the heavy emotional toll of selfless service, making the book both inspiring and heart-wrenching from cover to cover... Gilead's Physician is a compelling historical read that I would highly recommend." -K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

"With its historical details and profoundly moving characters, Gilead's Physician is about resilience, love, and the fight to make a difference in a world that doesn't always welcome change." -Manik Chaturmutha for Readers' Favorite

"Gilead's Physician creates the world of Appalachia at the turn of the 20th century with great sensitivity to time and place. The region's dialect is also skillfully captured with its particular rhythms and word choices, which I recognize from living in the mountains of southern North Carolina for many years. Yet what I appreciated the most was that Linda Bennett Pernell does not sidestep the thorny moral issues raised in the book." -C.R. Hurst for Readers' Favorite

"Gilead's Physician is a sweeping, heartfelt tribute to the quiet heroism of rural doctors and the communities they serve. A beautifully rendered and accurate historical fiction of grit, grace, and the price of one man's calling to care and heal." -Janis Robinson Daly, award-winning, best-selling author of The Unlocked Path and The Path Beneath Her Feet