Ann Weisgarber

Home

Thank you for dropping by my website, and I hope you enjoy the visit.

There are many wonderful things about having my manuscripts turned into published novels, but the opportunity to meet readers such as you tops the list. Please feel free to drop me a line. Or if you’d like for me to visit with your book club, just click here.

At first glance, my novels, The Promise and The Personal History of Rachel DuPree seem very different. The Promise takes place in Galveston, Texas, while Rachel DuPree is set in the South Dakota Badlands.

Yet, look a little closer and you’ll see the similarities that link the two books. Both are told from the points of view of women, both take place in rural settings around the turn of the 20th Century, and they are stories about outsiders trying to find their places in the world.

The Promise

  • (Release date in the UK - March 14, 2013)

    1900. Caught in a scandal, Catherine Wainwright, pianist, must leave her comfortable life in Ohio. She travels to Galveston, Texas, and marries the recently widowed Oscar Williams, a childhood admirer whom she has not seen in years.

    Catherine is unprepared for the life that awaits her. The weather is sweltering, Oscar's home is rustic and remote, and his little boy, Andre, resents her presence.

    But it's Oscar who most unnerves her. He has expectations that Catherine is unable to fulfill.

    Then there is Nan Ogden, Oscar's housekeeper. Catherine's arrival comes as a shock to Nan. Not only had she promised Oscar's first wife that she would take care of Andre, but she has feelings for Oscar that she struggles to hide.

    Meanwhile, a powerful hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico gathers strength and spins toward Galveston.

    • The Personal History of Rachel Dupree

  • Longlisted for the Orange Prize, Shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers, Winner of The Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction, and Winner of the Stephen Turner Prize for Best Work of First Fiction.

    When Rachel, hired help in a Chicago boardinghouse, falls in love with Isaac, the boardinghouse owner’s son, he proposes a bargain: he’ll marry her but only if she gives up her 160 acres from the Homestead Act so he can double his share. Landownership, Isaac believes, will give him a measure of equality with the white man. Rachel agrees to the bargain, and together they stake their claim in the South Dakota Badlands.

    Fourteen years later, in the summer of 1917, it hasn’t rained in months and supplies have dwindled. Expecting another child, Rachel struggles to feed her family and is concerned about the welfare of the children. Isaac, a fiercely proud former Buffalo Soldier, refuses to consider giving up the ranch and is determined to pull the family through this rough time. Somehow, Rachel must stand up to her husband and do what is right for their daughters and son.

    • Announcements

      -The Personal History of Rachel DuPree will be the Big Read for Washington County, Texas, in October 2013.

      -The Promise has been recommended by BookGroup.Info, a leading online organization for book clubs in the UK.

      -Reader's Digest Australia will include The Promise in its January 2014 Select Edition.

    • Reviews

      The Promise

      Set against the worst natural disaster in twentieth century American history, The Promise is a riveting tale, told in lean luminous prose, of the power of love and the frailty of the human condition.(Weisgarber’s) characters will live in your imagination long after you've turned the last deeply moving page.”

      - Ellen Feldman,
      author of Next to Love, Scottsboro, The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, and Lucy.

      The Personal History
      of Rachel DuPree

      "An indelibly affecting teaching story: How unchecked selfish desires, regardless of their origins in historical cruelty and deprivation, lead inevitably to suffering. A suffering that can be alleviated only by the realization of a pure love for others greater than one's desires for self. Rachel and Isaac DuPree and their tiny, vulnerable family stand as monuments to the forgotten millions of brutal, spirit deforming choices made and endured by so many brave and deeply wounded Americans."

      -Alice Walker,
      author of The Color Purple

      "An essential American story etched in vividly remarkable prose, of a unique period in our history, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree beats with the timeless heart of human endeavors, yet drops us seamlessly into particular spaces and times, a grand achievement of the first rate. Some will call this a novel of race, some will see the futility of the dustbowl settlement, some will believe it to be a tale of a strong woman. It's all of these and so much more, most clearly a tale that will hold and resonate on many levels."

      -Jeffrey Lent,
      author of In the Fall

    Latest Tweets

    ©Copyright 2012 Ann Weisgarber. All Rights Reserved                                                                                                                    Created by SmartAuthorSItes.com ... Websites for Authors.