In 1847, when Karen Fisher`s great-grandmother`s grandmother, Emma Ruth, was 11 years old, she and her family went west on a wagon train, and Emma left behind a chronicle of the experience. A century and a half later, Fisher has based a novel on Emma`s life, broadening it to include the story of the wagon train`s guide, a Scottish trapper who falls in love with Emma`s mother, Lucy. Merging a rich saga-like story with the intimate details of domestic existence, A SUDDEN COUNTRY provides a dazzling window into the period, and into the life of a particular family as they make their difficult way from Iowa to Oregon.
