Sarah's Quilt

Turner continues the fictionalized story of her great-grandmother, begun in THESE IS MY WORDS. Six years have passed, and the now widowed Sarah continues to build her life, her family, and her corner of the Arizona territories. She and her grown sons struggle to keep their cattle ranch in the face of drought, development, and unscrupulous speculators. This story's strength is the rational, resilient character of Sarah. Valerie Leonard's performance is extraordinary; all the vim and vigor of the feisty Sarah comes through in her first-person telling. She creates a character you will admire and remember long after you finish her story. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

April 18, 2005
Turner (These Is My Words
) resumes the fictionalized diary of her great-grandmother, Arizona frontierswoman Sarah Agnes Prine, four years later in this day-by-day account of seven months in which the indomitable, twice-widowed rancher faces drought, prairie fire, a stampede, a hanging and a proposal. Sarah fears losing her ranch: "I need money and I need rain. Both of them in good order and flowing over." Even help brings worry: Sarah's prosperous neighbor offers sympathy and marriage; sons Gilbert and Charlie return home, defying their mother's wish that they complete their education; Sarah's mother sells land to hire a water witch with spiritual gifts and frightening proclivities; visiting nephew Willie runs away with Sarah's savings. Sarah goes to San Francisco, where her brother has lost everything in the 1906 earthquake, and Gil and Charlie ride south in search of Willie. Not all the news is bad, though. A new neighbor proves a good friend and promises to be more, while his son champions Sarah through legal challenges to her land. Older, tougher, wiser, Sarah enchants with her plainspoken energy and honesty. The title may suggest a gentle tale of domestic comfort, but the book is as straightforward, gritty and persistent as the woman who inspires it and as memorable as the landscape where she carves out her life. Agent, John Ware.