Worlds collide in this tale of two girls — one Amish and one an outsider — in Suzanne Woods Fisher’s latest novel.
Suzanne’s talent for creating page-turning tales based on real people result in pop-off-the-page stories and characters. Historical and factual events are fictionalized in Fisher’s Lancaster County Secrets Collection and The Search is no different. This time Fisher zeros in an important time in Amish history, the 1972 Supreme Court decision to allow Amish children to attend parochial schools.
It is against this back drop that Fisher weaves a tender love story of shocking secrets, raw depth and laugh-out-loud humor. Meticulously researched, The Search joins The Choice and The Waiting, which collectively have sold nearly 150,000 copies, as well as Fisher’s non-fiction Amish titles. Fans both old and new will find themselves immersed in this heartwarming–and surprising–tale of young love, forgiveness, and coming to grips with the past.
Fifteen years ago, Lainey O’Toole made a split-second decision. She couldn’t have known that her choice would impact so many. Now in her mid-twenties, she is poised to go to culinary school when her car breaks down in Stoney Ridge, the very Amish town in which her long-reaching decision was made, forcing her to face the shadowed past.
Bess Reihl is less than thrilled to be spending the summer at Rose Hill Farm with her large and intimidating grandmother, Bertha. It quickly becomes clear that she is there to work the farm–and work hard. The labor is made slightly more tolerable by the time it affords Bess to spend with the handsome hired hand, Billy Lapp. But he only has eyes for a flirty and curvaceous older girl …
Beloved by both her readers and those within the Amish community, Suzanne Woods Fisher’s interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Benedict eventually became publisher of Christianity Today magazine.
Suzanne is the host of a radio show Amish Wisdom and her work has appeared in many magazines. She lives in California with her husband. When her pen isn’t flying furiously across the page, she trains puppies to be guide dogs.