Story Description:
Baker Publishing
Group|October 1, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0897-3
New Historical Novel from 7-time Christy Award
Winner! In the aftermath of the Civil
War, Josephine Weatherly and her mother, Eugenia, struggle to pick up the
pieces of their lives when they return to the Virginia plantation. But the bitter realities of the life after
the war cannot be denied: their home and land are but shells of their previous
grandeur; death has claimed her father and brother; and her remaining brother,
Daniel, has returned home bitter and broken.
The privileged childhood Josephine enjoyed now seems like a long-ago
dream. And the God who failed to answer
any of her prayers during the war is lost to her as well. Josephine soon realizes that life is now a
matter of daily survival – and recognizes that Lizzie, as one of the few remaining
servants, is the one she must rely on to teach her all she needs to know. Josephine’s mother, too, vows to rebuild
White Oak…but a bitter hatred fuels her.
With skill and emotion, Lynn Austin brings to life the difficult years
of the Reconstruction era by interweaving the stories of three women- daughter,
mother, and freed slave – in a riveting tale.
My Review:
Twenty-two-year-old, Josephine Weatherly is sitting by
an upstairs window in her Aunt Olivia’s home with her sixteen-year-old sister,
Mary. They thought that they had been
through the worst of the war but that wasn’t the case at all. President Davis and the Confederate
government were leaving Richmond, Virginia, people were looting, and fires
could be seen in the distant sky. “The
enemy invasion everyone had long feared was about to begin.” The Yankees were coming and they feared for
their lives. The two sisters watched
refugees fleeing by the wagonload but Josephine didn’t know where else they
could go. Hunger was making Josephine
uncaring and unable to think clearly.
Josephine was feeling slighted by God and felt He was
ignoring her. She had tried to be good,
do what she was supposed to do, and prayed for him to protect her two brothers
as they’d marched off to battle. But
Samuel had been killed and no one had heard from Daniel in weeks, and her
father had died of pneumonia. Now she
was praying for God to watch over her mother, Eugenia, Mary, and herself who
had all been left alone on their plantation outnumbered by slaves. Josephine felt God’s reply was to send a “flood
of Yankees into the countryside, forcing her family to flee to Richmond for
safety.” Josephine didn’t know if she
would ever see White Oak Plantation again.
Josephine was angry with God and she had decided in
church that prayer was a complete waste of her time. She decided that He would do whatever He
wanted anyway regardless of her pleas.
She also decided she wouldn’t ask for protection from the fire or the
spreading chaos or the Yankee invasion, what was the point. She no longer cared about the outcome and
deliverance would come by death, uncertainty, or overwhelming sorrow. She only wished it would end soon as the fear
was almost paralyzing.
The next-door neighbour came to the door to inform
them they had more than looters to worry about now. All the guards at the state penitentiary had
left their posts and all the prisoners were now on the loose. He advised them to allow their slaves to
sleep inside the house with them for extra protection.
Josephine still believed in God, only “a fool could
deny the existence of a Creator. But she
no longer believed in prayer or in a God who cared about her suffering. It was time to bury her childish faith in a
God who was her loving Father, watching over her, doing what was best for
her. As far as she was concerned, He was
as distant and unreachable as her own beloved father.” It is sometimes difficult not to lose your
faith in the face of such adversity. We
are, after all, human and not perfect.
Eugenia, Josephine, Mary and their slaves moved back
to White Oak Plantation. All the slaves
were free now and could leave whenever they wanted, some already had. Lizzie and Otis decided to stay for a while
which was fine with Eugenia as long as they would continue to work for her,
free or not, they could stay.
Josephine continued with her lack of faith in God and
struggled to believe that He ever listened to her. She was truly feeling that God didn’t answer
prayer. How many times in our own lives
do we feel this way? Sometime we want
something so badly that ashamedly we find ourselves bargaining with God in the
hope that it will prompt Him into giving in to our desires. It is at times like these or when facing
adversity that we have the opportunity to learn some valuable lessons but due
to our lack of faith we are blinded and don’t see that at the time.
The other issue Josephine dealt with was her anger at
God. She felt He was leaving her adrift
in the sea of life and just ignoring her, had tuned her out and she didn’t know
how to deal with those feelings. When
she meets a young man named, Alexander, who is firm in his belief and faith in
God and his good knowledge of scripture, he was able to assist Josephine in
sorting out these feelings of abandonment and anger. She didn’t know that it was okay to be angry
with God, but once she did know she didn’t understand how to communicate those
feelings to him. My heart went out to
Josephine for the struggles she was coping with in her daily life but more
importantly her feelings of loneliness without God. It is only through this young man and one of
their freed slaves, Lizzie that Josephine finally begins to understand.
All Things
New was not only a story about losing faith and feeling
anger, but how to go about regaining that faith and turning that anger into
joy. It is also a story of change – each
woman in the story changes due to the circumstances they are faced with and it
made me realize how much more positive I could be in my own life by making some
changes. Some of us can remain deeply
faithful during times of great adversity or when we feel that God just isn’t
listening to us, while others can remain steadfast in their faith no matter
what. God is always listening to us, God
always answers us but sometimes we’re just so caught up in our troubles that we
don’t hear Him, or we do hear Him but pretend we don’t because sometimes change
is painful and its sometimes easier to stay in our comfort zone.
Lynn Austin has outdone herself again with All Things New and I’ll definitely be
touting its virtues to all who will listen.
I’d also like to thank Lynn Austin and Bethany House
Publishers for the complimentary copy of the book.
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