NEW!!

"In this amazingly written and deeply researched book, Amy Belding Brown delivers 17th-century Massachusetts to the reader with a prose that springs from the page and wraps you in wonder. Flight of the Sparrow showcases the author’s imagination bound by her dedication to historical fact. Her writing engages with a passion and longing as Rowlandson struggles with a life she desires living in the woods with the Indians or reverting to a subservient Puritan wife and mother. As Mary tells her husband, “The truth is… that my time in the wilderness has changed me. Forever.” And so will you be. This is a book for both readers of literary fiction as well as those who love a well-researched work of historical fiction."

"Brown has written an engaging and enjoyable novel based on solid research. Students of history may be put off by the trappings of a romance in the story line but will value the authentic representation of early Colonial America and the more sympathetic portrait of Native Americans that is lacking in James Alexander Thom's similar Follow the River."—Cheryl Bryan, Orleans, MALibrary Journal Booksmack! LJXpress Prepub School Library Journal Horn Book Guide Horn Book Magazine Junior Library Guild

“Brown retells the actual events surrounding Mary Rowlandson’s abduction to expose the difficult role of women in colonial Puritan society, explore Mary’s quest for freedom and offer a fuller understanding of her faith.  She eloquently allows Mary’s story to unfold, while ransporting the reader into the rigid world of the Puritans and juxtaposing that with the more natural life of the Native Americans.  Brown’s story is as much inspirational as it is historical, and more intriguing because it is true.” 

"Flight of the Sparrow is a fresh, engaging chronicle of the human heart that breathes life into a vital but oft-neglected chapter of our history.  Amy Belding Brown has turned an authentic drama of Indian captivity into a compelling, emotionally gripping tale that is at once wrenching and soulful."  - Eliot Pattison, author of the Mystery of Colonial America series.

"A mesmerizing tale of survival and awakening. Flight of the Sparrow breathes life into Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative.  The deftly depicted cross cultural friendship reminded me of Caleb's Crossing and the fast-paced story kept me turning pages.  Belding Brown has crafted a fine-limned portrait of a remarkable and resourceful woman." - Donna Thorland, author of The Turncoat and The Rebel Pirate.

"This is the book I longed to read. This is the story of Lidian, the fascinating woman who was loved insufficiently by Emerson and perhaps too much by Thoreau. Amy Belding Brown has brought her back to life in a novel that glitters with intelligence and authenticity."

"In this extraordinary book, Amy Belding Brown has brought the 19th century to life. We may think of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family and friends as static daguerreotypes, but in this story they lightly spring off the page with all the inconvenient desires and ambitions that are the texture of our lives. A souring, imaginative leap, this book combines detailed history with a page-turning illicit love story. It's a look at a rich moment in American history and a great read, a rare combination."

"Brown's writing is graceful, at times giving Lidian a poetic voice….In an age when scholarly biographers meticulously document every detail in the actions and settings of their subjects, Brown has escaped to the freedom of fiction to suppose ‘what might have been."

"Amy Belding Brown's novel is a beautiful work that renders effortlessly the sentiments and sensuousness of a woman who is, to use Ms. Brown's own terms, "at war with herself, a woman of opposites who yearns to reconcile her mental acuity with her emotional sensitivity." The spiritual, emotional and intellectual lives she is after illuminating for us are wonderfully ambitious, and it is quite refreshing to see that ambition backed up with a quality of writing that bears up to the weight of its subject matter.”

“Mr. Emerson's Wife engages with intelligence and passion the mind of Lidian Emerson and what is found are the staggering daily compromises and 

frustrations of an intellectual 19th century woman. Bless all the conflicted freedoms she sought and bless too Amy Belding Brown for delivering us a robust novel that situates itself with grace and struggle in feminine consciousness among the Concord men.” 

“Everyone who has ever entered into marriage with expectations that aren't met will be touched by this portrait of Lidian Jackson Emerson whose life was fixed on coupled stars: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Mrs. Emerson ultimately enters a terrain beyond duty and romance which is carved from years of hurt, loneliness, sterility of affection and the temptation to find love beyond the bounds of her promise. Finally understanding that "disillusion is the nature of marriage," she discovers the strength to live the life she was given rather than the life she once thought she must have.”