"Broken Ground"

by Karen Halvorsen Schreck
GIVEAWAY!

Description

When a young oil rig widow escapes her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl, she discovers a surprising future—and new passion—awaiting her in California in this lyrically written romance by the author of Sing for Me.

Newly married to her childhood sweetheart, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is settling into life in a Depression-era, East Texas oil town. She’s making a home when she learns that her young husband, Charlie, has been killed in an oil rig accident. Ruth is devastated, but then gets a chance for a fresh start: a scholarship from a college in Pasadena, CA. Ruth decides to take a risk and travel west, to pursue her one remaining dream to become a teacher.
At college Ruth tries to fit into campus life, but her grief holds her back. When she spends Christmas with some old family friends, she meets the striking and compelling Thomas Everly, whose own losses and struggles have instilled in him a commitment to social justice, and led him to work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in a camp just east of Los Angeles. With Thomas, Ruth sees another side of town, and another side of current events: the numerous forced deportations without due process of Mexicans, along with United States citizens of Mexican descent.
After Ruth is forced to leave school, she goes to visit Thomas and sees that he has cobbled together a night school for the farmworkers’ children. Ruth begins to work with the children, and establishes deep friendships with people in the camp. When the camp is raided and the workers and their families are rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, Ruth and Thomas decide to take a stand for the workers’ rights—all while promising to love and cherish one another.

Biography

Karen Halvorsen Schreck is the author of three previous novels, Sing for Me, Dream Journal, and While He Was Away. She received her doctorate in English and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her short stories and articles have appeared in Literal Latté, Other Voices, Image, as well as other literary journals and magazines, and have received various awards, including a Pushcart Prize, an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, and in 2009, first prize awards for memoir and devotional magazine writing from the Evangelical Press Association. A freelance writer and frequent visiting professor of English at Wheaton College, Karen lives with her husband and two children in Wheaton, Illinois. 

My thoughts ~

In the mid-1930s newlyweds, Ruth and Charlie have just begun their lives together. Tragedy takes Charlie's life, leaving Ruth lost and alone, forced to make significant changes that will pattern her future.  

The author has created strong characters who traverse considerable misfortune and conflict. The plot moves at a steady pace and is unpredictable. Unexpected circumstances unfold as Ruth journeys through difficult times in her personal life, and the lives of those who affect her deeply.

The Mexican Repatriation becomes the focus as Ruth becomes involved with children and families whose very existence is questionable. At this point in the story the prejudices and appalling treatment of migrant workers is well documented and powerful. A great deal of research has brought to life the events surrounding the deportation of a people whose Mexican descent is more powerful than the citizenship papers and work papers they hold. 

Broken Ground is written with knowledge and passion, and the author is effective at projecting the atrocities of the human condition. I highly recommend this novel for the honest approach to shocking realities.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Howard Books and Wynn-Wynn Media in exchange for my honest review. All expressed opinions are my own, and no monetary compensation was received for this review. 

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