Sharon Traner

A Striving After Wind Sharon Traner

Annie Winston and her brothers have been surrounded by wealth and prestige all their lives. But, as their mother says, "They don't know how to dream." When she dies, their father seizes upon an opportunity to uproot the family and moves them to farm in the Mississippi Valley near Dubuque, Iowa, a place that is unlike anything they had ever imagined.

This family saga is written against the backdrop of the global turmoil of the last three years of the Vietnam War, 1970 to 1973, causing this family to grapple with changing ideas and conflicting attitudes. They live, they work, they love, and they cry while learning the meaning of perseverance and loyalty and gaining a greater understanding of self-worth and decency. Like Annie says, "We have each planted a piece of ourselves in this place and the roots have grown much deeper that any of us expected."