cover image An Unseemly Wife

An Unseemly Wife

E.B. Moore. New American Library, $15 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-451-46998-4

This lilting, image-filled first novel by poet E.B. Moore, a poet and retired sculptor, shifts seamlessly among time periods, and between narrative and letters. The present is set in 1867, on an immigrant wagon train journey from Pennsylvania toward the wilds of Idaho. The not-so-distant past comprises the seasons before, when Amish wife and mother Ruth Holtz must choose to take that journey with her beloved husband, Aaron, and their four children, despite knowing that according to the community’s Ordnung, Plain People stay separate. But Aaron’s determination to give the “littles” a chance at wider horizons compels her to make the “unseemly” choice of going with him. Moore’s lyrical writing reveals Plain ways and sensitively depicts the Holtz family’s determined efforts to find their place among the diverse wagon train trekkers. Soulful letters back home to her brother further illuminate Ruth’s slow shifting away from separateness amid births, accidents, illness, healings, and death. When misunderstanding and tragedy threaten Aaron’s dreams, Ruth must make dramatic decisions the Plain community would disapprove of. The conclusion of this slowly unfolding novel is both heart-wrenching and satisfying. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (Oct.)