The Outcast

Rachel Stoltzfus has secrets and her secrets have cost her her standing in her Old Order Mennonite community--they have caused her to be ignored, to be displaced, to be all but shunned. She has a son, Eli, whom she loves more than her own life, but she refuses to tell anyone who Eli's father is.

Rachel was living with her twin sister, Leah, and her family--husband, Tobias, and their children--including Jonathan who was born a few months before Eli. Leah had a hard time with the pregnancy and needed Rachel's help. When Leah falls down the stairs and ends up in the hospital, Tobias forces Rachel to move out.

Never before has Rachel felt like the Outcast that she has become. She moves in with Ida Mae, the owner of a store that sells Amish and Mennonite goods, and offers foot massages to Ida Mae's customers. Ida Mae also gives rides to the community when they need to get somewhere farther than their buggies will take them.

When Eli gets sick, all the secrets have to come out--he has non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and he's only a baby. He needs a bone marrow transplant, preferrably from a sibling. This is when reckoning time comes for Rachel, Eli's father, and Leah.

Part of the story is told from Rachel's perspective--where the reader gets an inside perspective on Rachel's struggles to raise her son alone, to rise above the gossip that surrounds his birth, to make a way for an innocent little boy in a harsh world.

Part of the story is told from the perspective of Amos--Tobias' father--who is dead and looking down on events from a more neutral perspective. His understanding of everything that has happened fill the story in and make it fuller and richer.

Jolina Petersheim has made her debut as an author with a home run of a novel. It's hard to put down.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and a wonderful foot massage.