I like the way this author writes a story. She takes you there, where the characters live, and you get a real feel for the land they live in, the trials and suffering they face and the joys. You weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

It is the year of 1930. Joseph Stalin in in command of the communist regime and the Russian people are forced to give up their land and work on collective farms. Many go missing and are never heard from again. Yuri and his sister Tatyana watch as their parents are hauled away. Yuri finds a way to get his sister out of Russia by sending her to America. They will now both pursue different destinies as Yuri battles to stay alive in Russia and Tatyana faces tough times in America during the great depression. They will find it hard to discover their place in the world and also hard to remain faithful to a God who they know is real, but who seems to have forgotten them.

I am most eager to begin book two and discover what happens to these two in "In Fields of Freedom". One of them is now married (not giving that one away, you will have to read the story). I like the way the back of the book summed up this story by saying, "they valiantly pursue their separate destinies, amidst the crumbling economic and political systems around them, and realize, through their hardships and triumphs, that freedom grows in the heart of every Christian". ( )