Read The Daughter's Walk Online
Authors: Jane Kirkpatrick
The Daughter's Walk
Praise for
The Daughter's Walk
“Jane Kirkpatrick is a wonderful writer who creates a story full of strong, admirable characters with human flaws. Clara and Helga come to life with dimension and depth, pulling us into their world. I walked across the country with them, experienced their triumph and disappointment, and faced the shattered, angry family when they returned. Jane has given readers a wonderful story of a family schism that comes full circle to love and grace, and of the importance of family, especially when one has been an outcast. I highly recommend
The Daughter's Walk
!”
âF
RANCINE
R
IVERS
, best-selling author
“Jane embraces the finest qualities of the human spirit in all her writing. One of America's favorite storytellers.”
âS
ANDRA
D
ALLAS
, author of
Prayers for Sale
“Jane Kirkpatrick brings immense integrity to historical imagination, using her consummate skills as a historian sleuth and psychologist. A compelling portrait of Clara's own bold entrepreneurial spirit gives readers believable insight on how a mother and daughter's love survives financial hardship, a courageous thirty-five-hundred-mile walk, family tragedy, and estrangement. Bravo!”
âL
INDA
L. H
UNT
, award-winning author of
Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
“Jane Kirkpatrick gives us inspiring stories of women who accomplish amazing feats. She has done it again with the poignant story of Clara Estby, who walked with her mother from Spokane to New York in a desperate bid to save the family farm from foreclosure. What was left for this daughter when her connection to family was severed? Jane brings Clara's story to life.”
âD
EON
S
TONEHOUSE
, Sunriver Books and Music
“Jane Kirkpatrick's attention to detail and ability to craft living, breathing characters immerses the reader into her story world. I come away entranced, enlightened, and enriched after losing myself in one of her novels.”
âK
IM
V
OGEL
S
AWYER
, best-selling author of
My Heart Remembers
“
The Daughter's Walk
brings to mind another much-loved book,
Mama's Bank Account
by Kathryn Forbes, which became the Broadway play and movie
I Remember Mama
. Jane's Norwegian characters captivated me in much the same way. Uplifting and heartbreaking by turns, this is a wonderful story, superbly written.”
âI
RENE
B
ENNETT
B
ROWN
, author of
Where Gable Slept
and the award-winning young-adult novel
Before the Lark
Other Books by Jane Kirkpatrick
NOVELS
Portraits of the Heart Historical Series
A Flickering Light
*
An Absence So Great
Change and Cherish Historical Series
A Clearing in the Wild
*
A Tendering in the Storm
*
A Mending at the Edge
A Land of Sheltered Promise
*
Tender Ties Historical Series
A Name of Her Own
*
Every Fixed Star
Hold Tight the Thread
Kinship and Courage Historical Series
All Together in One Place
*
No Eye Can See
What Once We Loved
Dreamcatcher Collection
A Sweetness to the Soul
*
Love to Water My Soul
A Gathering of Finches
Mystic Sweet Communion
NONFICTION
A Simple Gift of Comfort
Homestead: A Memoir of Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility
Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft
*
*
finalist and award-winning works
T
HE
D
AUGHTER'S
W
ALK
P
UBLISHED BY
W
ATER
B
ROOK
P
RESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
Scripture quotations are taken or paraphrased from the King James Version and the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica Inc.
TM
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com
.
This book is a work of historical fiction based closely on real people and real events. Details that cannot be historically verified are purely products of the author's imagination.
Copyright © 2011 by Jane Kirkpatrick
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.
W
ATER
B
ROOK
and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kirkpatrick, Jane, 1946â
    The daughter's walk / Jane Kirkpatrick. â 1st ed.
            p. cm.
    “Based on a true story.”
    eISBN: 978-0-307-72941-5
  1. Mothers and daughtersâFiction. 2. Family secretsâFiction. I. Title.
    PS3561.I712D38 2011
    813â².54âdc22
    2010043657
v3.1
To strong and transforming women of all generations
.
AST OF
C
HARACTERS
| Clara Estby | daughter of Helga |
| Helga Estby | wife of Ole and mother of Clara, Ole, Olaf, Ida, Bertha, Henry, Arthur, Johnny, William (Billy), Lillian |
| Ole Estby | husband of Helga |
| Hannah Estby | aunt of Clara's; sister to Ole |
| * Forest Stapleton | son of Clara's employer |
| the Rutters | employers of Bertha and Olaf |
| Martin Siverson | friend of Ole |
| Chauncey Depew | railroad magnate and philanthropist |
| Olea Stone Ammundsen | New York furrier |
| Louise Gubner | New York furrier |
| * Franklin Doré | agent of Olea and Louise |
| * John Doré | lumberman in Manistee, Michigan |
*
Characters designated with an asterisk are not based on actual historical figures and are fully imagined by the author.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
I
SAIAH 30:21
Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility.
E
LIZABETH
C
ADY
S
TANTON, 1848
God is love. Love is the proof of God, and forgiveness is the proof of love.
D
ALE
C
RAMER IN
Levi's Will
