The Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna
It’s the summer of 1944 in Door County, Wisconsin, where even the lush cherry orchards and green lakeside farms can’t escape the ravages of war.
Cherry Harvest by Lucy Sanna is a powerfully sensuous and gripping debut laced with suspense. It reveals a hidden side of World War II’s home front, when German POWs are put to work in a Wisconsin farm community, which leads to dark and unexpected consequences. Food is rationed, money is scarce, and the Christiansen family struggles to hold on.
The Christiansen’s teenage daughter, Kate, raises rabbits to save money for college, while her mother, Charlotte, barters what she can to make ends meet. Charlotte’s husband, Thomas, strives to keep the orchard going while their son—along with most of the other able-bodied men—is fighting overseas.
When their upcoming cherry harvest is threatened, strong-willed Charlotte helps persuade local authorities to allow German war prisoners from a nearby camp to pick the fruit. But when Thomas befriends one of the prisoners, a teacher named Karl, and invites him to tutor Kate, the implications of Charlotte’s decision become apparent—especially when she finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Karl.
So busy are they with the prisoners that Charlotte and Thomas fail to see that Kate is becoming a young woman, with dreams and temptations of her own—including a secret romance with the son of a wealthy, war-profiteering senator. And when their beloved Ben returns home, bitter and injured, bearing an intense hatred of Germans, Charlotte’s secrets threaten to explode their world.
Book Page: https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062343628/the-cherry-harvest
About the Author: Lucy Sanna has published poetry, short stories, and nonfiction books, which have been translated into a number of languages. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Sanna now divides her time between Madison, Wisconsin, and San Francisco. The Cherry Harvest is her first novel. Author website: https://www.lucysanna.com
