The Daughter's Walk

Starred review from February 28, 2011
Nineteen-year-old Clara Estby is hauled by her mother, Helga, on a 7,000-mile walk from Spokane, Wash., to New York in 1896. The fashion industry is looking for promotion of the new, shorter dress for women; Helga is looking for a $10,000 prize to save the family farm from foreclosure. The historically factual walk is only the first half of the book; the rest follows Clara after she leaves her family, becomes a businesswoman, and makes her way as times change for women at the turn of the century. Kirkpatrick has done impeccable homework, and what she recreates and what she imagines are wonderfully seamless. Readers see the times, the motives, the relationships that produce a chain of decisions and actions, all rendered with understatement. Kirkpatrick is a master at using fiction to illuminate history's truths. This beautiful and compelling work of historical fiction deserves the widest possible audience.

Starred review from April 15, 2011

Needing money to save the family farm in 1896, Helga Estby and her daughter, Clara, accept a bet to walk 3500 miles from Spokane, WA, to New York City within seven months. For their efforts, they would be awarded $10,000. Returning home a year later, Clara chooses to leave her mother and the only life she has ever known to continue on her journey. The original walk, paid for by the fashion industry to show off new, shorter dresses, is based on historical fact. VERDICT Kirkpatrick (An Absence So Great) has done an outstanding job of illuminating turn-of-the-century America and the effect of the period's rapid changes on the emancipation of women. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction that features strong female characters and attention to detail.

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