Release Date: January 3, 2023
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-120-3
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-57869-835-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022912634
eBook: 978-1-57869-121-0 CLICK HERE to Purchase the eBook.
Booksellers and Libraries: Order Here or in Ingram.

Synopsis

From the author of Walking Home: Trail Stories, a gold and silver winner in the 2022 Human Relations Indie Book Award, Celia Ryker’s fiction debut is based on the true story of her grandmother, a woman who endured abuse and poverty at the turn of the twentieth century.

The historical novel begins in 1906 on a rural farm in Arkansas, where Augusta was raised on a hard-knock farm and married off to the widowed father of one of her classmates at the age of thirteen. They flee the failed cotton crops for factory work in Detroit, and Augusta must navigate city life alone as a new mother. Abandoned by her husband, Augusta works as a waitress, but with four children to provide for, she is forced into a decision that will haunt her forever.

Praise

“In this novel inspired by the challenging life of the author’s grandmother, a woman is left to raise her four children alone during the 1920s… Smooth-flowing prose carries the tale forward at a steady pace… farm and city vignettes create vivid images of time, place, and economic class, and Augusta emerges as a formidable woman in the face of daunting odds. A historically evocative period drama that’s poignant and disquieting.”

—Kirkus Reviews

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“Augusta is a beautiful mix of fiction and nonfiction anecdotes about a tenacious woman working to keep her family afloat in the early 1900s. Based on the author’s grandmother and family stories, Augusta…is a heart-wrenching novel centering on the unique circumstances of a woman in a time period where dependency on marriage to a man for survival was commonplace…an essential story for all readers and will continue to be important for years to come.”

—Literary Titan

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“This plain-spoken tale is about a woman born into an Ozark poverty more profound than you probably could imagine…This kind of poverty, the kind you can almost smell, is the background of the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante and The Grapes of Wrath. All three novels tell us that poverty has to do with a lot more than money…this is a swift and interesting read.”

—Ann Anderson Evans, author of Daring to Date Again

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“Augusta is an ideal blend of storytelling and family history, wit and heartache, persistence and vulnerability.”

—Shawn T Anderson, former president of League of Vermont Writers

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“Augusta is an insight to another era and a testimony to a woman who became more resilient as she was challenged. Engaging writing propels the story through the decades of Augusta’s life, and what a life it was.”

—Jennifer Belton, former White House Library director

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“Celia Ryker’s latest book draws the reader in from the first pages, and allows us to follow Augusta’s journey from a child bride in the Ozarks to a grown woman faced with the challenges of poverty and abuse. This true story comes alive with vivid characters and settings, so that we are immersed in Augusta’s life as if we are there with her. The book honors the author’s grandmother’s perseverance and tenaciousness, and while it is a tale of the past, it has relevance today. Faced with difficult choices at every turn, Augusta shows that the human spirit has no bounds when it comes to a mother's love for her children.”

—Anne Richter Arnold, journalist & writer

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“Celia Ryker’s newest book Augusta is a novel based on a true story chronicling a teenaged mother’s fight to keep her family together through pre-Depression-era challenges that arise as she emigrates from a failed Arkansas farm to a Detroit tenement. An unspeakable decision, the circumstances leading to it, and the consequences of that decision drive the plot and make this book a page-turner.

Ryker’s book evokes John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. It is a beautifully crafted narrative detailing the trials of a girl married off to her best friend’s father at the age of thirteen who finds herself abandoned and tasked with raising her family alone on the money she makes as a waitress. Augusta puts a smile on her face, presses through the cold-shoulder treatment she finds in Detroit and manages to create a support-community.

Life sends one challenge after the other, but through it all Augusta’s determination stands as a beacon of hope. The ending brings the reader full circle from youthful dreams to marital realities and finally to the main character’s self-actualization as a mother who needs to forgive herself in order to find redemption. This is a must-read for anyone interested in historical narratives, women’s studies, or tales of true grit.”

—Jennifer Falvey, The Vermont Standard

REVIEWS & IN THE NEWS

Literary Titan, August 29, 2023: Augusta 5-Star Book Review

AnnAndersonEvans.com, February 9, 2023: BOOK REVIEW: Augusta, by Celia Ryker

Burlington Free Press, June 20, 2023: Sink into summer and savor a Vermont book or two (or a few)

StoryComic Podcast, March 4, 2023: (Episode 246): Celia Ryker, Author of ‘Augusta’

Manchester Journal, February 3, 2023: Vermont author Celia Ryker tells of her grandmother, married at 13

Women Writers, Women’s Books, January 3, 2023: Writing My Grandmother’s Story

The Vermont Standard, December 22, 2022: Bridgewater Corners author tells tale of her grandmother in new book

Kirkus Reviews, November 28, 2022: A historically evocative period drama that’s poignant and disquieting.

Meet the Author