Clearing in the Wild, Jane Kirkpatrick
Clearing in the Wild, Jane Kirkpatrick
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Clearing in the Wild
A Novel

Author: Jane Kirkpatrick

Narrator: Jane Kirkpatrick

Unabridged: 11 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/01/2007

Synopsis

Young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of Bethel colony, an 1850s religious community in Missouri that is determined to remain untainted by the concerns of the world. A passionate and independent thinker, she resents the limitations placed on women, who are expected to serve in quiet submission. In a community where dissent of any form is discouraged, Emma finds it difficult to rein in her tongue--and often doesn't even try to do so, fueling the animosity between her and the colony's charismatic and increasingly Autocratic leader, Wilhelm Keil. Eventually Emma and her husband, Christian, are sent along with eight other men to scout out a new location in the northwest where the Bethelites can prepare to await "the last days." Christian believes they've found the ideal situation in Washington territory, but when Keil arrives with the rest of the community, he rejects Christian's choice in favor of moving to Oregon. Emma pushes her husband to take this opportunity to break away from the group, but her longed-for influence brings unexpected consequences. As she seeks refuge for her wounded faith, she learns that her passionate nature can be her greatest strength--if she can harness it effectively.

About Jane Kirkpatrick

Jane Kirkpatrick is the author of twenty books and is a two-time winner of the WILLA Literary Award. Her first novel, A Sweetness to the Soul, won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award, an honor given to writers such as Barbara Kingsolver and Larry McMurtry. For twenty-six years she "homesteaded" with her husband Jerry on a remote ranch in Eastern Oregon.  She now lives with Jerry, and her two dogs and one cat on small acreage in Central Oregon while she savors the value of friendship over fame.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Jan on 2008-03-31 13:28:03

I liked the way the author showed that when people follow a man instead of God things will go wrong. The people of the colony believed they were following God by following their leader, but the leader showed he was not fit to lead.The other men were too caught up in honoring a leader in order to honor God that they could not reason well.

Goodreads review by Auntie on June 30, 2007

I will read anything Jane Kirkpatrick writes! This is the latest one that I've found. The author is very knowledgeable about the history of the Northwest, and by reading her stories I've become fully immersed in that history as well. Her characters have a spiritual life, and the challenges that they......more

Goodreads review by Marcia on May 11, 2017

Oh man, this book was really full of detail about the incredible hard life of the settlers on the West Coast of California and Oregon in the 1850s. All along I kept hearing my brain protest "I could never have done that" !! I truly don't think I could have survived the winters there. Even the though......more

Goodreads review by Alice on July 08, 2008

Historical fiction based on the true account of a religious community that moved from Bethel, Missouri to Oregon in the 1850s. The book attempts to be more than a "prairie romance". Every character has been documented by the author and researched through diaries and interviews with with family membe......more

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