Francesca of Lost Nation: A True-Life Novel by Lucinda Sue Crosby

Francesca of Lost Nation: A True-Life Novel. Lucinda Sue Crosby. Creative Space Independent Publishing Platform. April 2013. 340 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9781460919811.

Francesca and Sarah, grandmother and granddaughter bonded by a phenomenal love, live a normal life in Lost Nation, Iowa in 1940s America.  Francesca is a woman who flouts most traditional roles expected of woman, possessing an independent and adventurous streak that is grounded in her love of family.  She has had one great love which she lost to her sister, a fact that wounds her so deeply that her relationship with her sister Maude is fraught with tension for all too many years.  She marries a fine man, Cox, who has since passed away and now concentrates of her love of life and her special gift with animals and nature.  Her daughter Rachel and husband Daddyboy have won a trip to Paris.  Sarah and Francesca are about to have the summer of their lives!

After the lucky couple leave for Europe, an arsonist appears in Lost Nation and the sheriff asks Matthew Mosely to stay with Sarah and Francesca as a matter of protection. A great love begins underscored by the possibility that Matthew might recover from his flight accident wound and choose to leave.  Instead they focus on relishing every moment they have together.  This includes county fairs, learning to fly, mending the wound between Francesca and Maude, finding a stray but lovable dog, finding a cave with amazing drawings of a final Indian battle, and so, so much more.

 

Words can hardly convey the engaging, enchanting quality of this story which has a simple plot but whose characters are so real and dynamic that one never wants the story to end.  The cover is dull and reflects nothing of the superb writing evident in this beautiful story that never dulls and develops, the characters growing in wisdom, humor and strife as in real life.  Love can make or break a person, and Francesca teaches and learns how to handle both sides of that enigma; the result is a granddaughter who inherits and absorbs the same from her gifted, flamboyant, and charming grandmother. 

 

Francesca of Lost Nation is fine historical and romantic fiction that should be a best seller and would make a grand movie or even a Broadway show!  Read it and immerse yourself in outstanding fiction!