Broken Ground

Broken Ground
336 Pages
ISBN 978-1476794839

When a young oil rig widow escapes her grief and the Texas Dust Bowl, she discovers a surprising future—and new passion—awaiting her in California in this lyrically written romance by the author of Sing for Me.

Newly married to her childhood sweetheart, twenty-one-year-old Ruth Warren is settling into life in a Depression-era, East Texas oil town. She’s making a home when she learns that her young husband, Charlie, has been killed in an oil rig accident. Ruth is devastated, but then gets a chance for a fresh start: a scholarship from a college in Pasadena, CA. Ruth decides to take a risk and travel west, to pursue her one remaining dream to become a teacher.

There Ruth sees another side of town, and another side of current events: the numerous forced deportations without due process of Mexicans, along with United States citizens of Mexican descent. With Thomas Everly, a striking and compelling man, whose own losses and struggles have instilled in him a commitment to social justice, Ruth finds herself immersed in the lives of a community of Mexican migrant workers. She begins to work with the children as a teacher, establishing deep friendships with people in the camp. When the camp is raided and the workers and their families are rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, Ruth and Thomas must decide whether they will take a stand for the workers’ rights—and love and cherish one another.

Karen Halvorsen Schreck

About Karen Halvorsen Schreck (Chicago, Illinois Author)

Karen Halvorsen Schreck

Karen Halvorsen Schreck is the author of the historical novels Broken Ground (Simon & Schuster May 2016), called a “masterfully written . . . must-read” by USA Today, and Sing For Me, which was described by Publisher’s Weekly as “an impressive debut…a well-wrought and edifying page-turner” (Starred Review), along with two novels for young adults, While He Was Away and Dream Journal, and a book for children, Lucy's Family Tree.

Karen's short stories, interviews, and essays have appeared in magazines and journals including Consequence (forthcoming, 2018), Hypertext Magazine, The Rumpus, Belt, and Image. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, Karen received her doctorate in English and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives with her husband, the photographer Greg Halvorsen Schreck, and their two children in Wheaton, Illinois.