The Shunning
by Beverly Lewis
Paperback
Price: £8.99
Publisher:Bethany House imprint of Baker Pub from Lion
Published:July 2011
ISBN:978-0-764-20960-4
GoodBookStall Review:
Originally published in 1997, this Special Movie Edition has a letter from the author and photographs from the set of the motion picture between pages 160 and 161.
The story is loosely based on a true story of a shunning as Beverly Lewis explains. It is the story of her own grandmother that inspired her to write about her character Katie Lapp. I wonder if the movie is closer to the truth, or the book? No matter! The book held my attention all through.
Katie has been baptised into the Amish church, but feels more and more uncomfortable with the various rules and restrictions that she is supposed to adhere to. The love of her life, Daniel, has been drowned in an accident, and part of her died with him. She is resigned to her betrothal to the widowed Bishop John, and has accepted that her role will be to look after his five children and bear him more.
But she struggles! She longs for more colours in her life instead of the drab clothes the women of her community all wear. She longs to free her hair from the tight bun she is expected to wear, to be able to speak out about her inmost thoughts instead of always having to defer to her father or some other man, and above all she longs to have music in her life. It is forbidden to sing or even hum anything other than the hymns in the prescribed hymn book. Daniel had a guitar – which Katie now has hidden away – and the tunes they composed together go round and round her head.
Her father never acknowledges the secret he and her mother have hidden from Katie, but truth finds a way of coming into the open. A thoroughly good read.
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (26/07/11)
Originally published in 1997, this Special Movie Edition has a letter from the author and photographs from the set of the motion picture between pages 160 and 161.
The story is loosely based on a true story of a shunning as Beverly Lewis explains. It is the story of her own grandmother that inspired her to write about her character Katie Lapp. I wonder if the movie is closer to the truth, or the book? No matter! The book held my attention all through.
Katie has been baptised into the Amish church, but feels more and more uncomfortable with the various rules and restrictions that she is supposed to adhere to. The love of her life, Daniel, has been drowned in an accident, and part of her died with him. She is resigned to her betrothal to the widowed Bishop John, and has accepted that her role will be to look after his five children and bear him more.
But she struggles! She longs for more colours in her life instead of the drab clothes the women of her community all wear. She longs to free her hair from the tight bun she is expected to wear, to be able to speak out about her inmost thoughts instead of always having to defer to her father or some other man, and above all she longs to have music in her life. It is forbidden to sing or even hum anything other than the hymns in the prescribed hymn book. Daniel had a guitar – which Katie now has hidden away – and the tunes they composed together go round and round her head.
Her father never acknowledges the secret he and her mother have hidden from Katie, but truth finds a way of coming into the open. A thoroughly good read.
Reviewer: Mary Bartholomew (26/07/11)
