Stranger here below /

Hinnefeld's second novel (after In Hovering Flight) begins with a letter from Maze Whitman to her former Berea College roommate Mary Elizabeth (M.E.) Cox. Maze regrets that they have lost touch, particularly because of the circle of women important to them both. At the center of their lives is Georgia Fenley Ward, a tall, large-boned, defiant Quaker woman. When Sister Georgia was 16, she fell in love with a black man, and her father sent her to Kentucky to teach at Berea College. Still there 60 years later, she meets Maze, a spirited, unconventional girl who finds nothing unusual about rooming with M.E., a musically talented black girl. Maze then meets Harris Whitman, a furniture maker and activist, and by 1963, Maze and Harris join M.E., Sister Georgia, and four others as squatters at an old Shaker inn. They are soon evicted, and they are all sent back into a world in turmoil. VERDICT This is a multigenerational novel spanning decades rich in history, but ordinary women, who suffer from life's challenges and keep secrets, are at the heart of the story. Recommended for its wide appeal to readers seeking thoughtful, well-written fiction.-Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., CO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.