Rich and sensory atmospheric period description and a strong sense of New England enhance the immersive narrative.
Tragedy becomes hope, and a family of the heart help each other find their futures, together and apart. In Pauper Auction, strangers become friends, confidantes, and lovers. The farm is the setting for danger and tragedy as well as simple joys and blossoming love. An itinerant Abenaki stonemason, Sozap Wzôkhilain, known as Joseph, joins the household and touches each of their lives in unexpected ways. Secrets and sorrows live on the prosperous farm. Margery swears to herself that she will not forever remain a pauper in purse or purpose. The young widow and an abandoned child named Agnes find themselves taken in by farmer and ciderist Samuell Wheeler and his elderly mother, renowned bed rug maker Hannah Wheeler. She and the other indigent town residents wait their turn to be auctioned out to the lowest bidder who will accept the paupers into their homes in return for town funds. Margery Turner sits in the Thorneboro, New Hampshire meetinghouse on the second Tuesday of March, 1805. The fall from beloved wife of the town blacksmith to widowed pauper was swift. Mankind are always seeking after happiness in some way or another." ( Leavitt's Farmer's Almanac, 1805) Fans of historical fiction ought to take a look."A gorgeous and meticulously researched historical fiction examining a young woman’s struggle to escape unexpected poverty and find autonomy and purpose in early New England. With portentous forecasts from the Farmer’s Almanac in the chapter headings (“uncertain,” “settled,” “foul”), Kronenwetter’s domestic narrative paints a convincing day-to-day picture of early America, immersing readers into the stark realities of farm life and meeting halls. When Joseph, an Abenaki stonemason, joins them, he brings friendship and wisdom, especially after tragedy strikes. Margery works on the farm, aids Agnes and Samuell’s rheumatoid-stricken mother Hannah, and learns how to make Hannah’s elaborate bed rugs. Samuell also takes in 10-year-old club-footed Agnes, who was abandoned by her widowed father. As the town’s moderator explains, “It is our civic and Christian responsibility to provide for the care of our town’s unfortunates.” Charitable farmer Samuell Wheeler is the winner, at one dollar a week.
In 1805 in the fictional town of Thorneboro, N.H., the local blacksmith’s widow, 27-year-old Margery Turner, waits to be auctioned to the lowest bidder in exchange for subsidized labor. Kronenwetter’s impressive debut follows the uncompromising lives of a destitute widow, a disabled child, and a Native American stonemason.
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