Sisters of a Different Dawn

De: Darcy Williamson

Narrado por: Susanna Burney

Sisters of a Different Dawn is the tale of two women -- New Englander Sara Gray, daughter of a Methodist Episcopal minister, and an eastern Oregon Country Shoshoni, Umentucken. Both women strive to retain their individuality during a time when change threatens all that they had once believed to be truth. Set in the 1840s, Sara Gray and Umentucken have a common bond, Sara's brother Myram, who left their New England home years earlier to venture west as a trapper for the Hudson's Bay Company. Sara's own travels from Boston to Fort Hall in search of Myram are filled with adventure and hardships. Her biggest challenge, however, is Umentucken, as the women from two different worlds struggle to reach common ground.

©2010 Darcy J. Williamson (P)2024 Darcy J. Williamson

A Wonderful Telling of lives intertwining

This historic novel, set in the 1840s is a wonderful telling of the lives and adventures of two women of very different cultures, Sarah Gray, a preacher's daughter from New England, and Umentucken, a Shoshoni woman in Idaho. The author winds the parallel stories of the women's lives into the fabric of the book, and then the women meet because of the love for one man, Sarah's brother who is Umentucken's husband. The book has the right amount of adventure, romance, joy and sadness, friendship to make a compelling story. I could not put the book down. I totally enjoyed the read, and learned a lot about the Shoshoni culture and historical facts from the Eastern US that I didn't know before. I highly recommend.

A tale of two lives entertwined

From the first chapter of Sisters of a Different Dawn, I was hooked by Darcy's immensely descriptive writing. Call me crazy, but it was like she had traveled back to the time and places she's writing about. I'm in awe of the research that went into this book. The tale is the combined storylines of Sara Gray, a minister's daughter from New England, and Umentucken, a Shoshoni woman from southeastern Idaho. We journey with Sara as she travels from Boston to Ft. Hall along the Oregon Trail, hoping to connect with her brother, Myram, whom she hasn't seen in many years. We experience the life of Umentuken, from birth to womanhood, and the Shoshoni at the beginning of the arrival of the white people. The twist comes when these two women meet, and their storylines combine. It is a story filled with beautiful moments and harsh realities. After listening to the Audible version with the amazing narration by Susanna Burney (and an uncredited male narrator), I will also be reading the book. I want to pause and take in the depth of detail in Darcy's writing. Recommend read or listen 100%!