Trueborn American Shadows: A Historical The Barren Faith: The Shakers of Pleasant Hill, KY, (Paperback)

Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, 1855.

Thomasin Pruitt was bound to the Shakers when she was four years old. Fed, schooled, and taught to hang her chair on a peg and her heart on heaven, she has never known another home.

But as a child she faked a miracle in Meeting, and the lie has followed her like a shadow. Now of age, she must answer the question every Shaker-raised child must face: sign the Covenant and stay, or walk out the gate to the world.

Her mother, who gave her away and has written to her every year through the Trustees Office, is waiting on the Salvisa road with a blue calico dress. Cholera is coming up the river. An old saint is dying. And Thomasin must decide what faith really is, obedience or the courage to be barren of all but truth.

A luminous and deeply researched novel of the United Society of Believers, The Barren Faith is a story of mothers and daughters, sin and forgiveness, and the quiet cost of belonging. Perfect for readers of literary historical fiction, Kentucky history, and faith tested by love.