Second Wives

Amid the political chaos of the German Confederation in 1848 and with crops on his Baden farm failing, thirty-six-year-old Martin Kornmeyer persuades his wife, Esther, to emigrate to America with their seven children and her widowed younger sister, Rosa. When Esther falls ill on the journey, the family is delayed in the Netherlands for two years—a time marked by guilt, new love, and death while they strive to follow the dictates of their Catholic faith.At last, the family crosses the Atlantic and settles in the farming regions of western New York State. As decades pass there, first Martin’s oldest son, Karl, and then Karl’s daughter, Emma, also face love and loss and look to that earlier generation for guidance.Inspired by the author’s ancestors, this historical saga traces the lives of three generations through marriage, loss, and the possibility of renewal through a second love. Read more