About the Book
Book: The Newcomer
Author: Suzanne Woods Fisher
Genre: Historical; Amish
Release Date: January 31
In 1737, Anna Konig and her fellow church members stagger off a small wooden ship after ten weeks at sea, eager to start a new life in the vibrant but raw Pennsylvania frontier. On the docks of Port Philadelphia waits bishop Jacob Bauer, founder of the settlement and father to ship carpenter Bairn. It’s a time of new beginnings for the reunited Bauer family, and for Anna and Bairn’s shipboard romance to blossom.
But this perfect moment cannot last. As Bairn grasps the reality of what it means to be Amish in the New World–isolated, rigid with expectations, under the thumb of his domineering father–his enthusiasm evaporates. When a sea captain offers the chance to cross the ocean one more time, Bairn grabs it. Just one more crossing, he promises Anna. But will she wait for him?
When Henrik Newman joins the church just as it makes its way to the frontier, Anna is torn. He seems to be everything Bairn is not–bold, devoted, and delighted to vie for her heart. And the most dramatic difference? He is here; Bairn is not.
Far from the frontier, an unexpected turn of events weaves together the lives of Bairn, Anna, and Henrik. When a secret is revealed, which true love will emerge?
My Thoughts
"The Newcomer" starts off right after "Anna's Crossing" ends. It does give "fill-in" details about what happened in the first book, but you get a much fuller picture if you read them in order. I'm not that big of a fan of book series where the hero and heroine get their "happy-ever-after" by the end of book one, but then in book two they aren't together anymore, or having troubles. I was worried that was what I was going to run into with this book. I felt like this was more a continuation of the first book because their relationship was still fairly new and not developed much by the end of Anna's Crossing. I liked Bairn's growth in this book and his coming to know what was important and valuable to him. This book was similar to her "Bishop's Family" series where we follow more characters than just the main hero and heroine. We see things from the perspectives of Anna, Bairn, Felix, and Dorothea. Dorothea's transformation during the book was encouraging and I was glad to see her beat the depression that always seemed to hover over her. I wanted to give some of the characters a shake to wake them up to what was going on! I enjoyed the inclusion on actual people (although fictionalized) in the book and the historical accuracy. This book had many different layers to the story and I was glad to continue my journey with the church from Ixheim. I look forward to reading the third book in the series.
About the Author
Suzanne Woods Fisher is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including Anna’s Crossing, The Bishop’s Family series, and The Inn at Eagle Hill series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace and The Heart of the Amish. She lives in California. Learn more at www.suzannewoodsfisher.com and follow Suzanne on Twitter @suzannewfisher.Guest Post from Suzanne Woods Fisher
Pennsylvania of 1737, the setting for The Newcomer, is like a foreign country. Parts of it might seem familiar—the same hills and creeks and blue sky, but we’d hardly recognize the settlers. People like Anna, or Bairn, or the mysterious Newcomer. We wouldn’t be able to understand their language, their customs and traditions. Their world was that different from our modern one.
The first group of Amish immigrants (first written about in Anna’s Crossing and followed up in The Newcomer) settled northwest of Philadelphia, then a vast wilderness, and relied on each other for safety, security, building projects, and church. In nearby Germantown, settlers were tradesmen, so they clustered houses together in small knots. The Amish farmers took out land warrants for sizeable properties and lived considerable distances from each other.
In The Newcomer, Anna cooked food in a cauldron over a large hearth. One-pot meals can trace their beginnings to open-hearth cooking when ingredients for a meal went into a large kettle suspended over the fire. Traditional dishes—ham and beans, pork and sauerkraut—used sturdy, available, and simple ingredients that improved with long, slow cooking. The dishes could be easily expanded when the need arose to set a few more places at the table. And it did, often. Large families and unannounced company inspired Amish cooks to find ways to “stretch the stew.”
Noodles (including dumplings and rivvels) could be tossed into a simmering broth to make a meal stretch. Most farms had a flock of chickens, so eggs were easily at hand. Today, homemade noodles are still a favorite dish.
Another “stew stretcher” was cornmeal mush, originally eaten as a bread substitute. Early German settlers who made their home in eastern Pennsylvania roasted the yellow field corn in a bake oven before it was shelled and ground at the mill. The roasting process gave a nutty rich flavor to the cornmeal. Mush is still part of the diet the Old Order Amish—cooked and fried, baked, added into scrapple, smothered in ketchup. Dress it up and you’ve got polenta.
Now here’s one thing we do have in common with 1737 Pennsylvania immigrants…a love of good food and a shortage of time! Here’s one of my favorite one-pot recipes—probably not the kind of stew Anna might have made for ship carpenter Bairn or the mysterious Newcomer (ah, which man stole her heart?)…but definitely delicious. Enjoy!
Lentil Chili
Here’s one of my favorite “stew stretchers.” You can expand it even more by serving over rice.
Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
10 c. water
1 lb. dry lentils
1 tsp. cumin
10 c. water
1 lb. dry lentils
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt (season to your taste)
1 tsp. salt (season to your taste)
½ tsp. pepper
2 c. salsa (your favorite variety)
29 oz. canned tomatoes, crushed
2 c. salsa (your favorite variety)
29 oz. canned tomatoes, crushed
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Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Suzanne is giving away a Kindle! Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries!https://promosimple.com/ps/b0d1
"The Newcomer" is available in paperback:
- Series: Amish Beginnings (Book 2)
- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Revell (January 31, 2017)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0800727495
- ISBN-13: 978-0800727499
- Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
and in Kindle edition:
- File Size: 5591 KB
- Print Length: 336 pages
- Publisher: Revell (January 31, 2017)
- Publication Date: January 31, 2017
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B01LZJU8GS
I got a free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and given voluntarily. No compensation was received.
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