A sweeping nineteenth-century tale taking readers from the Old World to the New, from Prussia to New Orleans to the Illinois Prairie, Sophie poses questions of identity and belonging all of us wrestle with. Even though it is a work of historical fiction, Sophie's story-her experiences of love and loss, triumph and adversity, joy and sorrow, and how she makes her way through them-is our story too.
Who is Sophie Rieple?
Even she doesn't know.
Mere weeks ago, she was an adoring wife, contented homemaker, and loving mother to two darling little girls. After immigrating to America, she is now none of those things. Illness stole the life of her youngest on the ship, then took her beloved husband and their remaining child after their arrival in New Orleans.
A stranger in a strange land, adrift and penniless, Sophie has no family, no home, and no connections to anchor her soul. What she has are questions and no immediate answers.
Should she stay in the Crescent City and try to make a life there? Or make her way-alone-to the Illinois prairie her husband's family now calls home?
Her striking beauty may help her secure employment, but what will happen when it fades? Are her dogged determination and fierce desire to belong enough to sustain her as she searches for a way back home to herself?
Is there a future in America for her-one with a place and people she can call her own-or is Sophie's life over almost before it ever truly began?