A Cure for Death by Lightning - Gail Anderson-Dargatz

I really like this writer.

In A Cure for Death by Lightning, Gail Anderson-Dargatz sets her novel in WWII when most of the young men have left to die on the battlefields in Europe. Beth, the protagonist, is a young woman living on a farm with her parents and her brother. Her life is filled with unhappiness, hard work and poverty. Her classmate has been mauled and killed by a rabid bear, her father has become mentally unstable and sexually abuses her, her mother chooses to close her eyes to the abuse and instead converses with her long dead mother. Beth seeks refuge in a nearby Native community and in the forest, home of an unknown predator. She looks for love and escape as her brother sets off to join the army.

Michael McGowen in Quill and Quire says "It’s a testament to Anderson-Dargatz’s skill as a writer that in spite of this besieged backdrop, The Cure for Death by Lightning is a coming-of-age story that is as beautiful as it is uplifting."

I really like this writer!!!