Searching for Lincoln's Ghost
Andi Powell thinks about death far too often for an eleven-year-old. After losing both of her parents in a car accident and being raised by a grandmother obsessed with death, Andi is struggling with an unusual quest for a girl her age -- to determine whether there is life after death.
It is 1966, and Castalia, Indiana, like most cities of that time, is grappling with social and cultural change. Meanwhile, rumors have long swirled around Castalia's Lincoln Elementary School. Over its long history, the school has produced two sixth graders who claim to have seen Lincoln's ghost in the school's auditorium. When Andi prays on her dead mother's rosary to be the next to encounter Lincoln's ghost in order to confirm the existence of an after-life, a complex chain of events is set into motion, including the sudden appearance of John Malone, a new boy at school who harbors an explosive secret, and mysterious moaning emanating from behind the dark stage after school. While Andi desperately seeks answers to life's most difficult questions, an unlikely new friend emerges -- a mystical bait shop owner named Ezra.
SEARCHING FOR LINCOLN'S GHOST is a story about coming of age during the tumultuous 1960s, exploring such disturbing topics as personal isolation, fear and depression, bullying, social and racial intolerance. Peppered with Lincoln folklore and history, it is a timeless tale of the power of love, empathy, and how the actions of one person can profoundly impact another.
About Barbara J. Dzikowski (South Bend, Indiana Author)
Barbara J. Dzikowski graduated from Indiana University with a degree in philosophy, and she went on to receive a Masters in counseling. She has published three novels, her debut being Searching for Lincoln’s Ghost (2011). The Moonstoners (2019) was the first in a trilogy about two families whose lives become inextricably entwined from the 1960s through the present. In the second book of the trilogy, The Last Moon Before Home (2020), Dzikowski draws on her experience as a former counselor for individuals and caregivers facing dementia to bring the next leg of the Ziemny/Trudeau families’ journey to the light. After living on both U.S. coasts, she resides in her native Midwest.
