Pamela Schoenewaldt

Irma Vitale, a painfully honest young seamstress, strikes out from her isolated mountain village for 1880s America. A first novel. Original. 25,000 first printing.

A Novel

When We Were Strangers

When she and her mother are sent to America in 1904, trading their servitude in a count's lush villa for Cleveland's taut immigrant neighborhoods, Lucia blossoms and her mother wins fleeting fame on the tawdry stage of vaudeville until their past catches up with them. Original. 50,000 first printing.

Swimming in the Moon

"1914, smoky Pittsburgh eighteen-year-old Hazel Renner has a talent for drawing and dreams of traveling the world, a life free of the grand expectations her loving, ambitious immigrant parents want for her. When war breaks out in Europe, her fantasies are shattered, and horrific carnage and wrenching loyalties agonize her fellow German-Americans; now they're the enemy, hated and attacked. Hazel escapes to teach in Galway, a tranquil town seemingly tucked away from the world. The idyll is cracked when she and her freshly painted blue house in seem to acquire mysterious healing power. Hazel denies it all, but soon even she can't ignore the "miracles" happening around her. The town's outrage when "the wrong people" are healed leads to tragedy, and Hazel flees Galway and the terrible consequences of abilities she can't control. Her world is shaken further by the discovery of a family secret that takes her on a journey to unearth her past and find possibilities of extraordinary in a world transformed by war"--

Under the same blue sky

From the USA Today bestselling author of When We Were Strangers and Swimming in the Moon comes a lush, exquisitely drawn novel set against the turmoil of the Great War, as a young German-American woman explores the secrets of her past. A shopkeeper’s daughter, Hazel Renner lives in the shadows of the Pittsburgh steel mills. She dreams of adventure, even as her immigrant parents push her toward a staid career. But in 1914, war seizes Europe and all their ambitions crumble. German-Americans are suddenly the enemy, “the Huns.” Hazel herself is an outsider in her own home when she learns the truth of her birth. Desperate for escape, Hazel takes a teaching job in a seemingly tranquil farming community. But the idyll is cracked when she acquires a mysterious healing power—a gift that becomes a curse as the locals’ relentless demand for “miracles” leads to tragedy. Hazel, determined to find answers, traces her own history back to a modern-day castle that could hold the truth about her past. There Hazel befriends the exiled, enigmatic German baron and forges a bond with the young gardener, Tom. But as America is shattered by war and Tom returns battered by shell-shock, Hazel’s healing talents alone will not be enough to protect those close to her, or to safeguard her dreams of love and belonging. She must reach inside to discover that sometimes the truth is not so far away, that the simplest of things can lead to the extraordinary. Filled with rich historical details and intriguing, fully realized characters, Under the Same Blue Sky is the captivating story of one woman’s emergence into adulthood amid the tumult of war.

Under the Same Blue Sky

Cleveland, 1905. Als »Neapels Nachtigall« bezaubert die italienische Sängerin Teresa mit ihrer Stimme das Publikum. Allein ihre Tochter Lucia kennt Teresas dunkle Seite, ihr unkontrolliertes Temperament, das sie beide gezwungen hat, aus Italien zu fliehen und ihr Glück in der neuen Welt zu suchen. Doch Lucia will nicht länger der Spielball von Launen sein. In Cleveland findet sie endlich die Kraft, sich zu wehren: Um sich ihren Traum von einem selbstbestimmten Leben und Bildung zu erfüllen, trifft sie eine Entscheidung, die ihr Schicksal und das vieler anderer Menschen für immer verändern wird. Ein Must-Read für alle, die vielschichtige Charaktere, starke Frauen und ein realistisches historisches Setting lieben." Pittsburg Examiner "Ein großartiger Cast, eine zeitlose Familiengeschichte und ein faszinierendes amerikanisches Gesellschaftsporträt." Publishers Weekly

Pamela Schoenewaldt

About

Books

Join the club