The Redemption of Sarah Cain

July 3, 2000
Sarah Cain is happy--with her urban townhouse, her BMW, her success as a real estate broker in Portland, Ore. Her days are brimming over with e-mail, phone calls, appointments and closings, and that's just the way she likes it. The best thing about her self-absorbed existence is that she has broken free of the shadow of her controlling older sister, Ivy, a widow who lives with her five children in an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa. Sarah, a nonbeliever, never supported Ivy's decision to embrace the Plain People. She considers it a type of punishment to keep the children from enjoying a normal American lifestyle. But it's none of her business, at least not until she receives word that Ivy has met an untimely death, and has named Sarah as her children's guardian. At first resentful that she must travel 3,000 miles to tend to some children who are essentially strangers, Sarah discovers that she appreciates a simpler way of life. She chafes, however, under Amish scrutiny and the expectations of five grieving orphans. Sarah endeavors to remain emotionally aloof from the children while trying to make decisions about their future--a struggle, especially since the eldest looks and acts so much like Ivy. Lewis, author of The Shunning and other books set in Lancaster County, offers sympathetic characters, an endearing setting and good pacing, though Sarah's formulaic Christian redemption is a bit sudden.