I am a huge fan of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Drums of Autumn and the books following it take place in Cross Creek, North Carolina where Jamie and Claire build a homestead, encounter Flora MacDonald and witness the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. My brother is stationed at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC which is present day Cross Creek and I was there visiting last week. While I was visiting, we went to the Museum of the Cape Fear which hosts a pretty neat display about the Scottish Highlanders in Fayetteville as well as about Flora MacDonald and the beginning of the Revolutionary War in North Carolina. We also drove past the site where Flora MacDonald College once stood (it has since been incorporated into another private college). When I pointed out the sign, my brother asked "Who the heck is Flora MacDonald?!" and I had a total nerd moment explaining who she was and how cool it was to see where some of my favorite books were set. We didn't make it to the site of the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge because the weather was bad but all in all it was a great trip!
Synopsis: Set during the separation of Norway from Sweden in 1905, this richly detailed novel of love and loss was inspired by the life of the author's great-great-aunts. Oleanna and her sister Elisabeth are the last of their family working their farm deep in the western fjordland. A new century has begun, and the world outside is changing, but in the Sunnfjord their world is as small and secluded as the verdant banks of a high mountain lake. The arrival of Anders, a cotter living just across the farm's border, unsettles Oleanna 's peaceful but isolated existence. Sharing a common bond of loneliness and grief, Anders stirs within her the wildness and wanderlust she has worked so hard to tame. When she is confronted with another crippling loss, Oleanna must decide once and for all how to face her past, claim her future, and find her place in a wide new world. My Thoughts: I was very surprised by what an absolutely beautiful story Oleanna is. The ...
Comments
Post a Comment