“Divining Women”
by Kaye Gibbons
Published: April 2004
ISBN: 0399151605

(Updated: July 18, 2006.)

From the Publisher…

It’s fall of 1918 and, faced with a difficult pregnancy and even more difficult husband, Maureen Ross must find the strength to confront her tormentor, survive childbirth and, ultimately, find spiritual renewal.

About the Author…

Kaye Gibbons is the author of the popular novel Ellen Foster, which was chosen as one of Oprah’s Book Club Selections and adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. This novel, about an 11-year-old-girl who, after the death of her mother, summons the strength to escape from her abusive father, won numerous honors, including the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and letters. Born in 1960 in Nash County, N.C., Gibbons’ writing shows an intimate knowledge of the burdens of Southern women and the strength they posses that helps them to overcome the difficulties in their lives. Gibbons has been influenced by early 20th-century African-American poets, and writes in an idiomatic Southern dialect. Her other novels include The Virtuous Woman and Sights Unseen.

Well… this book was a lovely surprise!

If I could instantly give both my daughter and son the understanding of the wisdom that fills this book, I so would. Oh but yes. It is a story too many of us are familiar with and one that not all of us find a way out of. It is — ultimately — a story of abuse and a story of re/finding, re/filling, re/living. And/but it is also so much more than that.

It is about boundaries. It celebrates openmindedness. It is all about living in and with good hearts. It is lovely.