Showing results for "DI Murphy" in Historical Fiction

Will Braddock doesn’t want some old judge dictating his future. The newly orphaned fourteen-year-old embarks upon a quest to determine his own destiny. He heads west to find his uncle, a surveyor on the first transcontinental railroad. He has to convince his only living relative not to sign the judge’s papers sentencing him to a blacksmith apprenticeship.

Twelve-year-old Joan is sure that she is going to hate her new home - but almost right away she finds a kindred spirit. “You’re lucky I didn’t just start throwing rocks at you. I can hide in the trees and nail a kid with a rock from 30 feet away”. That’s Sarah, who prefers to be called “Fox”, who lives with her writer father in a rundown house in the middle of the woods - near Joan’s suburb, but it feels like a totally different world. Joan and Sarah - Newt and Fox - spend all their spare time outside, and soon start writing stories together.

Two young men leave their families and businesses to walk the dusty roads of ancient times with hopes of excitement and adventure. An ordinary 19-year-old man, Daniyyel, observes miraculous moments in his friend Matityahu’s life and wonders what gift his friend has. Daniyyel goes so far as asking Matityahu how and why he has these abilities. After questioning, studying, and trying out Matityahu’s spiritual practices and suggestions, we see Daniyyel’s growth from traditional religious thinking to an awakening of his own spiritual nature.

Do you believe that a drought of the land which causes many people to die of famine or a drought of the human soul that affects the lives of those nearest to him/her is more devastating? Can droughts of the soul can be more damaging than those of the soil? The analogy buried in the book Drought uncovers the dichotomy (or juxtaposition) of both.