Books with title The Dark Ground Trilogy: Book One

"I love Charlene and don't want to leave her... sure-footed, competent, and oh, so funny! The period is wonderfully evoked; clothes, conversation, social attitudes... are dead on." -Mavis Gallant, winner of the Prix Athanase-David and author of two novels, Green Water, Green Sky and A Fairly Good Time, plus several collections of short stories. Her short fiction has also appeared regularly in The New Yorker.

Faith kept me plain. Science made me complicated. In Hemlock Hollow, life isn't easy, but it is simple. Things in my community haven't changed much in over 300 years, since the time my Amish ancestors came to what is now the Green Republic. I milk my cow by hand, make fresh bread every morning, and hope to be courted by Jeremiah, a boy I've known since childhood. When my father falls ill, the English doctor says a hospital outside the wall can heal him. Jeremiah convinces me to go on rumspringa, to experience the outside world as an Englisher in order to be closer to my father during his recovery. Others have gone before me. They claim it's an adventure. But adventure turns to horror as an ordinary light switch thrusts me into a new world, and revelations about my personal history make me question everything I believe. All my life I've worked to be simple. I can't pretend anymore. Nothing about me is simple.