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Antoinette May Hernson 209 286-1320 toni@antoinettemay.com
The Book Worm
Isn’s it a wonderful feeling when someone you care deeply about succeeds bigtime? It helps too when you know that achievement is the result of endless hours of work, work, WORK. That’s how I feel about Lucy Sanna and her debut novel, “The Cherry Harvest.” Many of you know Lucy from the countless workshops that she’s led in Mokelumne Hill and from her high profile performance over the years at the Gold Rush Writers Conference. Lucy has helped to midwife countless novels for other writers. Now her own “baby” is gaining traction in the big world. “The Cherry Orchard,” published last month by HarperCollins, is both a torrid tale of forbidden love and a tender coming of age story. The year is 1944. Times are tough in Door County, Wisconsin. So tough that Charlotte Christiansen is reduced to slaughtering her daughter, Kate’s rabbits just to put food on the table A ray of hope appears when the government agrees to provide potential farm workers to replace the men overseas—the catch being that they are German war prisoners. Most of the farmers refuse, but Charlotte and her family are desperate. How can they use German laborers when these same “monsters” are fighting their son, Ben, in Europe? Eventually Charlotte and her husband, Thomas, agree but the results of the decision are disastrous. Charlotte is a devoted wife and mother, yet a whisper of Madame Bovary lurks beneath the surface. When Thomas befriends one of the prisoners, a teacher named Karl, and invites him to tutor Kate, Charlotte finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Karl. Deeply involved in her own dilemma, she fails to see that Kate is |
becoming a young woman with dreams and temptations of her own. They include a secret romance with the son of a wealthy, war-profiteering senator. The story explodes when Ben Christiansen returns home, an amputee suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I promise, “The Cherry Harvest” is a novel you’ll long remember. Lucy Sanna’s insightful characters and heart-stopping plot twists make for a tale that will stay with you for a long, long time. Of course, knowing Lucy so well, I was curious to know whether or not the affecting story really happened. She explained that the housing of WWll POWs in private homes was a little known fact. The Army didn’t want to alarm civilians, so they asked the media to keep the facts under wraps. For once the media cooperated. German prisoners were called on to replace men fighting the war and migrant workers who’d found better paying jobs at the shipyards. So what about the actual cherry orchard on Lake Michigan and the characters in the novel? Lucy admits they are fictional, but adds, “Cherry orchards did exist in that area and at least one of them was right there on the lakeshore, but the story . . . well we don’t know whether or not it happened because no one ever told.” Since the novel’s publication last month, Lucy has been on a whirlwind tour speaking at book clubs, signing at book stores. The Wisconsin State Journal has named “The Cherry Harvest” the book club read of the summer and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association—which includes seven states—has named it their book club read for July. I’m excited that this new celeb friend is flying in for a launch party at my house (8437 Center St., Mokelumne Hill) Sunday afternoon from 2 to 5. You’re all invited, but please RSVP to 286-1320. |
Come meet (or re-meet) Lucy and hear her while enjoying a glass of bubbly. Kate Dowden, of Well Read Books in Jackson, has generously offered a 25% discount on pre- ordered copies of “The Cherry Orchard.” To arrange this, call her at 304-0077. See you on Sunday!
* * * The Mokelumne Hill Book Club will meet Monday evening at 7 in the Mokelumne Hill Library, 8328 Main St. The book to be discussed is Sara Paretsky’s thriller diller, “Critical Mass.” Paretsky is a New York Times best seller credited with transforming the mystery through the creation of her female private eye, V. I. Warshawski. Here’s a thumbnail: In 1939, Dr. Lotty Herscel, V.I. Warshaw’s closest friend escaped the Holocaust in Vienna with her childhood playmate, Kitty Binder. Though the two drifted apart, when Kitty’s daughter finds her life in danger, she turns to Lotty for help. Lotty, in turn, summons V.I. Threats on the daughter’s life at first seem a simple case of bad drug dealings, but V.I. soon discovers that they are just the tip of an iceberg of lies,, secrests, and silence whose origins trace back to the deadly race among America, Germany, Japan, and England to develop the atomic bom. And while the secrets may be old, the people who continue to guard them will do anything to make sure they stay buried. Sound interesting? Come discuss it (or listen to the discussion and decide whether you want to read “Critical Mass.” This is a book club with no restrictions, no membership and no dues. Everyone is invited who,s interested in books and up for discussing them.
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