The Gold in These Hills

 

I am most familiar with Joanne Bischof's books that are set in the Appalachians, but this novel was a departure for a different side of the US.   Beginning in the early 1900s in California and diving into modern day, this book takes the reader through the ghost towns of gold mining and the heritage of the peoples living in that area.  The place is Kenworthy, California.  In the late 1890s, a mine was salted with gold and then sold to  someone thinking he could get rich.  All that could be gotten out of the mine was about $10.00 worth of gold.  

Juniper Cohen is living on a farm outside of Kenworthy with her daughter and is waiting for her husband to come home.  He had left, ostensibly, to find more work.  After being gone for nearly a year, she finds that he wasn't the man she thought he was, and she finds it hard to forgive him.  In the meantime, she has befriended the mercantile owner and the local school teacher.  

Johnny Sutherland is being divorced by his wife who threatens to file for full custody of their two children unless she gets her way.  She already took their home and most of their assets.  He doesn't want the divorce, but is pushed into it when he finds that she's pregnant with her lover's child.  To agree to her terms is the only way he can have shared custody of the children.  In carving out a niche for himself in his new circumstances, he buys a house that was once the home of Juniper Cohen. 

Through Johnny's realtor, he connects to a student who is studying the area in hopes to find something of her own family background.  Sonoma Del Sol, the student, is a descendent of Juniper's friend, Edie, the mercantile owner, but piecing together all of the history is hard--there are gaps and relics in Johnny's barn may have the clues she needs.  

This isn't a book full of action and derring-do, but a quiet meandering through the wilderness of life where there are fields and creeks and forests and mountains for our viewing pleasure.  The characters exhibit strength, courage, grief, and love throughout the book and that's what makes them so likable. 

The driving force in this book is forgiveness and mercy.  All of the characters need it at one time or another, and all of them give it and receive it in unexpected ways. That is what makes this book a five star read.  Joanne has done a masterful job in showing how withholding forgiveness holds us back and stunts our spiritual growth; and how giving mercy puts us in a position to receive blessings beyond our wildest dreams. 

Thomas Nelson and NetGalley.com provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.