Name: The Parting
ISBN: 9780764203107

Beverly Lewis

NY Times bestselling author's new series chronicling the separation of families during the New Order/Old Order split in the Amish community in Lancaster County, PA.

The Parting

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

I've always been intrigued by Lewis' books and her exploration of what it means to be Amish and an Amish person's relationship with Christ.

This book (and likely the books to come in the series) deals with a schism in the Old Order Amish that occurred back in the sixties. (Lewis did actually find evidence of two such splits and based the series off of those). The hair that broke the camel's back (for lack of a better metaphor) was a real and true revival... many Old Order Amishmen searching out the Scripture for themselves and their families.

The main character... Nellie Fisher... has to deal with many things in order to marry her sweetheart Caleb Yoder. Among them are her younger sister's death a hundred days before the beginning of the story, rumors of Suzy's wild Rumpsprighe, Suzy's revelation (through her diary), Nellie's father's conversion, the beginning of the schism and the pressures of Caleb's father... stay Old Order and away from the Fisher family or be denied the family land (something promised almost as a birthright).

The main issues Lewis deals with in this book (and likely further in the forthcoming books of the series) are things that I have always wanted to get my head around when dealing with the Amish. I almost could not put this book down. (I had to at one point in order to go to work :D) I eagerly anticipate the publishing of the subsequent books in the series.