I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Prayers for Sale
by
Sandra Dallas
historical fiction in a hardcover edition that was published by St. Martin's Press on April 14, 2009 and has 305 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
A standalone tale of friendship during the Depression that takes place in the mountains of Colorado.
My Take
Oh lord, I hated this book…it was so good. I cried and remembered and cried. Thank god, it had an ending with which I could live.
Arriving fresh in Middle Swan, a mining camp in the Colorado Rockies, from tragedy after the Civil War, Ila Mae, as she was then known, has come to Middle Swan to possibly marry a friend of her childhood friend. We learn of Hennie’s 70 years in Middle Swan while Hennie is in her last year there when she befriends Nit Spindle, a young newlywed who has followed her equally young husband to work on the mining dredge in the middle of the Depression.
Facing an ultimatum, Hennie does her best to help Nit fit in and thrive in Middle Swan by telling stories of how Hennie arrived and her experiences here while the two of them explore the mountains, hunt berries for preserving, and plants for health with quilting sessions in between. But that deadline is coming up and there’s just two things Hennie must do before she must leave Middle Swan forever and both terrify her.
Dallas makes you feel the weather and taste that chess/Kentucky pie. The dialog rings so very true for the class of people of whom she writes that I can only say how incredibly awed I am with Dallas’ writing. As a quilter and almost 20 years of living with a gold miner, I tell ya, she’s really got that pegged.
Excellent, excellent story by a consistently good writer. If you love quilting and stories about life, you must read Prayers for Sale.
