Janice B Dembosky

The Sparrow's Song Janice B Dembosky

In The Sparrow's Song, the final book in The Bond Woman Trilogy, Hannah Miller becomes the wife of a Methodist minister, Pastor Mark Adams. Though Mark is persistent in trying to disabuse Hannah of the notion that she is under the Bishop's curse, Hannah is haunted by her fear that the curse is real. When a song sparrow is the first bird to come to the feeder Mark has put up for her, Mark cites Scripture: "Like a fluttering sparrow, or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest." Nevertheless, Hannah harbors the thought that she did deserve the curse. On their honeymoon they hear the clear, bubbling song of a song sparrow, and Mark tells her it is a good omen for their life together. Though Mark says his desire for children is fulfilled by the step-children Hannah brings into their marriage-six-year-old Ida and thirteen-year-old Joey-she regrets that she cannot give him a biological child. He tells her that she and her children are enough. Hannah's longing to become a mother again is more than satisfied by a foster program that her husband starts, a program called "The Oasis." As Hannah and Mark decide to become foster parents of infants whose mothers are trying to decide whether to put them up for adoption or not, they cannot know that this decision will be take them from the mountain top of joy to the valley of despair. In The Sparrow's Song, author Janice Dembosky takes her readers into the peaks and valleys of her trademark multi-faceted plot, weaving in and out of Amish settlements and the Outside. Dembosky also re-introduces the characters readers have come to know and love-Sandra and Abram Goodman and their children, Israel and Isaac; Alexa Darling, fondly known as "the goat lady," and her family-as well as introducing them to new ones. Questions left unanswered by the first two books of The Bond Woman Trilogy are dealt with in The Sparrow's Song-the question of little Ida's paternity and the consequences of not telling the Goodman and Yoder children that they are related biologically. Readers will not be disappointed by the complexity and unpredictability of the plot of book three, The Sparrow's Song. It promises to take them on the emotional roller coaster ride they have come to expect from this author.