Sarahs Song (Esi Was My Mother Book 1)

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It nurtures the belief that wonder and love can still be found in the midst of despair and hatred, and I know I certainly need such encouragement and optimism when I look at the world around me at the moment.

As if these were not barriers enough, Max is then sent to fight in France, and Lili becomes interned in a concentration camp. How can their love possibly survive? Sarah Matthias grew up in the north of England before studying at Oxford University. Employment as a BBC trainee producer, a barrister, a university lecturer in land law and trusts followed, but with the arrival of her fourth child, Sarah wanted something that would work better with family life, and thus writing took over. We started off talking about the books she loved as a child, and whether historical novels had been her genre of choice, given that all her published books as an adult are historical fiction.

I was such a bookworm and I can still feel that fizzy feeling in my stomach when I see an old Jean Plaidy paperback published by Pan, with its iconic white cover with a moody looking lady in a long dress staring tantalisingly into the distance. My father was very keen on education and fell for my story and lent me one of his adult library tickets over a period of a few months.

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I wrote about Henry and all his wives in great detail including the manner of each of their deaths. Hurrah for Jean Plaidy! I wonder why this should be the case and Sarah suggests it may be something to do with reflecting on her own work. As well as visiting Germany several times, Sarah read as many diaries as possible written by Germans during the war.

Likewise, when researching the Romani experiences of the holocaust, Sarah was careful not to let her reading of accounts by Jewish survivors influence her, because the Romani experience was quite different. In the beginning, I have a hunch that there might be a story somewhere and so I go looking for it.

I start by simply reading.

I read and read around the subject and as I do the plot begins to form in my imagination. I read serious history books about the period and memoirs written by real characters from the past. Character boards and big A4 notebooks are tools she uses to bring her research together. These will shift and change as I read, so by the end of my research — it all looks a bit of a mess. I had a separate A4 note book for the war years, each year — having its own section. Not only do such facts help with a sense of authenticity, they also help in structuring her drafts as she works towards a final version.

I find having a structure of real events is very helpful. But with so many facts, so many true details, Sarah then has to make judicious decisions about what to include and what to cut. I write to tell stories that I think ought to be told or shine a light on issues that have moved me and I think need to be exposed. I use my research to add local flavour, colour, depth of character and to inform conversations, but I try never to slip in something I know just because I happen to know it. Sarah then goes on to amaze me with her knowledge of the colour of every ration ticket ever issued to Germans throughout the course of the entire year and her ability to recall such tiny details prompts me to ask if her past career as a lawyer a line of work where accurately holding on to lots of detail is vital might have helped lay the ground for her writing career.

At first she seems somewhat surprised by my suggestion:. A lawyer needs to use language very precisely.

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A whole case can turn on the position of a comma. But in creative writing, shades of grey are vital; life is not black and white and characters can be contradictory. A novelist can be deliberately ambiguous to serve the plot whereas a lawyer cannot be ambiguous at all — ever! So no, my past legal career has not helped me to write novels! I press Sarah on this. Perhaps being even more acutely aware of ambiguity, even if only to ensure that there is none in the case of legal writing, may have helped hone her creative writing skills?

Sarah remains sceptical but does then concede that two aspects of her legal career have helped her writing considerably:. For example, if you are representing a client, you need to imagine what your opponent will say in reply to what your own client might say.

You need to understand both sides of the argument — or sometimes there are many sides. Only by doing this can you prepare your counter arguments effectively. So, yes, I think a legal training is good for that aspect of the creative process. And what about the cut and thrust of the court room? And some rich family dialogue that Sarah may have been able to draw upon arose not that long ago when Sarah decided to make her family participate in an experiment to better understand wartime cuisine.

The Wartime Kitchen and Garden. I was curious to know how people made meals with so little and so I decided our family would eat only wartime food for a week. I stuffed a marrow with mince and rice, more rice than mince. My Beefy Stew with Vegetables also went down very badly. There was no meat in the stew, just Bovril gravy. It almost caused a riot. We ate an Indian takeaway that night and I was made to promise to consign the book to the charity book bank!

Definitely a Win-Win situation! My thanks go to Sarah for so generously responding to all my questions. My father was also involved in a Post War Reconciliation Project see more about this here and became friends with Pastor Knott who had also been forced to join the Hitler Youth like so many Germans including Gunter Grass and Pope Benedict. Pastor Knott had tried to become a conscientious objector in and somehow ended up as chaplain to German POWs living in the Midlands.

There are a lot of interesting beers but I have wine. We lived in it! My passion is to use history as the backdrop so I did a huge amount of research about the home front in Germany, but the story has got to be plot driven. Then in Sarah says: There were just three showcases about the fate of the Romanies. Some people say there might have been more, since no records were kept of the mass shootings in the woods, and concentration camp records were often destroyed by the Nazis as the Allies advanced.

Nobody was called to testify on behalf of the Romani victims at the Nuremberg trials and no war crime reparations were paid because the Germans insisted they had been persecuted as asocial thieves and criminals, not on grounds of race. And Ink 84 is also an ideal place to buy a copy. Accurate historical notes that connect Sarah's family with slave holders, Quaker abolitionists, and American Indians adds immensely to the drama. The focus, however remains on family.

The story can't help but make readers explore and question issues of their own relationships within family and across the spectrum of society. Wilson writes with power about the forces faced by the African American family in particular and the human family as a whole. Through the voice of Sarah a variety of characters are introduced who find a diversity of ways to stand up to evil and stand with one another no matter what.

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Dwight Wilson creates a timeless and timely tale that will stir, disturb and delight readers who are part of the first generation and the present one. It is a beautiful, inspiring, riveting, and exceptionally well-written book. Once I was done with "Sarah's Song," I even enjoyed reading the extensive bibliography that speaks to the depth of research, and rich historical detail lovingly woven throughout the narrative and the questions for discussion at the end of the book.

Yesterday, once I was back in , I had to keep reminding myself that "we's free now! I hang out mostly in the non-fiction world, and in that world have read about America's early s with its slavery, abolition, jumbled attitudes and cultures, westward migrations, and much more. But Dwight Wilson's skillful storytelling in Sarah's Song makes that world come alive for me and gives me a deeper, more durable understanding.

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Through his experience as a Quaker leader and as a descendant of slaves and through able research, Wilson knows that world well and tells compelling stories full of nuance and detail that leave a lasting impression. I'm enthusiastic about this book and look forward to sequel volumes to continue the story.

To my mind, the book stumbles a bit in the beginning but once we are into Esi and then her children's stories it flows remarkably well. I am most impressed with Dwight Wilson's scholarship; I learned so much! Thank you, Dwight, for a remarkable story and for sharing your knowledge of America with us. Sarah's Song is an excellent read and very easy to visualize.

Sarah's Song (Esi Was My Mother)

It reminds me of a story teller sharing the story that has been passed down through generations and even though you did not live in that era, the author's style of writing enables you to understand the various family dynamics of that time. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are trying to understand some of the oppression that the slaves endured.

What a well written piece of literature. Having been raised a Quaker and knowing my mother's family home was part of the Underground Railroad brought this story to life for me.

Dwight is a talented writer and I look forward to the next book. This book is a very moving and personal account well written and absorbing. I learned a lot from it and could not put it down. I appreciated the way it was grounded in historical detail. One person found this helpful.

What a wonderful story! Covering a neglected time and place in American history, the characters will draw you in and make you care. I cried, smiled; I felt anger and joy. But more importantly, I got a feel for what my life might have been like during this time. This is what I appreciated most about Sarah's Song. Sarah's Song is a work of deep scholarship and love.

I'm amazed by how the author manages to bring both accurate historic detail and the subtleties and passions of human beings to his engrossing tale. There's a problem loading this menu right now.

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