Horizons

"For readers interested in a novel about family life and American history between the 1880's and the 1920's, about struggling to survive on the homesteads of the mid-western prairie and in both small town and city without economic resources, about the history of the suffrage movement, about love and loyalty, loss and achievement, life and death, Judith Schaefer's Horizons is a delightfully written and carefully researched gem. Minnie, the center of the bright and hardworking family in South Dakota, and her daughter, Sarah, who dreams of going to college and being a writer, are both admirable and strong in their different ways. Together, with other amazing female and male characters, they depict the evolution of women's expanding "horizons" from home on the farm to Sarah's life in Chicago amid the social, artistic, and literary upheavals of her generation. Schaefer has written a wonderful novel of determination and courage that takes its place in the tradition of Giants in the Earth and O Pioneers! I loved reading Horizons and did not want to put it down. Lois A. Cuddy, author of Penelope's Song, Professor Emerita, University of Rhode Island "This amazing page-turner depicts life in South Dakota in the transitional period between the Victorian and Edwardian ages and the post World War I era. The compelling main characters, Minnie and Sarah, are mother and daughter pioneers who live in harsh and dangerous conditions on the prairie and in Chicago. The challenges they face, their courage and ingenuity, and their vision for making Dakota and the U. S. a better place by winning for women the right to vote compel a reader to keep turning the pages. Neither of them is flawless, and the ways in which they manage to survive despite serious mistakes makes it easy to identify with and cheer for them. Readers are taken inside Chicago's Hull House, introduced to Jane Addams, exposed to the ravages of Spanish Flu. Reading this book creates cherished memories." Rebecca Leo, author of The Flaws That Bind