Fire and the ore : a novel

Fire and the ore A novel

Olivia Hawker

Book - 2022

Three spirited wives in nineteenth-century Utah. One husband. A compelling novel of family, sisterhood, and survival by the Washington Post bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow. 1856. Three women-once strangers-come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they'll allow nothing on earth or in Heaven to stand in their way. Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman-Tabitha, a local healer-and betrothed to still another. Orp...haned by tragedy and stranded in the Salt Lake Valley, Jane Shupe struggles to provide for herself and her younger sister. She is no member of the Mormon migration, yet Jane agrees to marry Thomas. Out of necessity, with no love lost, she too must bear the trials of a sister-wife. But when the US Army's invasion brings the rebellious Mormon community to heel, Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha are forced to retreat into the hostile desert wilderness with little in common but the same man-and the resolve to keep themselves and their children alive. What they discover, as one, is redemption, a new definition of family, and a bond stronger than matrimony that is tested like never before.

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Subjects
Polygamy > Fiction.
Families > Fiction.
Women > Utah > History > 19th century > Fiction.
Mormons > Utah > History > 19th century > Fiction.
Utah > History > 19th century > Fiction.
Historical fiction.
Genres
Historical fiction
Published
Seattle : Lake Union Publishing 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Olivia Hawker (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
380 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781542037075
9781662504198
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

In the 1850s, Utah (or Deseret) and the new Mormon faith were drawing settlers and converts. Nearly all suffered extraordinary hardship to get there. Tamar, a strong believer whose family traveled from England for their new faith; Tabitha, a devout midwife and healer; and Jane, not a Mormon but stranded by family deaths on their intended trip to California, come together as three sister wives of Tom Ricks. Ricks, a friend of Brigham Young and important in the church hierarchy, is allowed to live "the Principle," what they call polygamous marriage. The women feel cheated and lied to, uncomfortable with the requirements of their faith and expectations, ultimately forming an unbreakable bond with one other. This is an interesting and readable story, but what makes it more profound is that all these characters actually existed, with nearly unchanged backstories. The author is herself a descendant of Jane. Readers get a visceral reminder of what people endured to go west and a sense of how little value and power women had. A good choice for public-library collections.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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