Christian Fiction Review:
Eve's Daughters

Submitted by Alice Brunette

Eve's Daughters by Lynn Austin is like five different books all connected by the chord of one family. Louise lives in Germany and immigrates to the US prior to WWI and suffers all due trauma. Louise's daughter, Emma then shares her story of being a first generation American and all that entails.

Grace is Emma's daughter, and her life was colorful and interesting. She was the child of a single, divorced mom, a rarity in the 1920s, and had associated stigmas that parallel present day.

Finally there's Suzanne, a true baby-boomer. She's struggling with the possibility of divorcing her husband, Jeff. Suzanne is the main character in this story. She is trying to reconcile what she knows about the past with what is actually happening in the present.

In Eve's Daughters, one of Austin's earlier works (published in 1999), Ms. Austin weaves a tale of mystery through these generations that made me want to keep on reading through its 428 pages. I wanted to learn the answer to the big mystery. Her descriptions of the various eras were vivid and interesting. Austin obviously did her homework for the historical portions. From the "old world" through WWII and into the 1960s, I felt like I could "see" all the action.

The lessons Eve's Daughters teaches are ones of sacrifice, family loyalty, and a sense of belonging. Each generation has its own struggles and, as the book says, "Joy and sorrow come and go like the ebb and flow." I will take that quote with me to ponder.

Alice Brunette is an avid reader, but relatively new to fiction. She has been married to Gary for 21 years. They have three children ages 13, 11, and 10 as well as four dogs and a cat (who thinks he's a dog). She is on staff with the Children's Ministry Welcome Team.