A sweeping historical epic of immigration and liberation.
An immigrant story that melds the rise of social change into an arrival experience that holds unforeseen opportunities and dangers.–D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
The writing is crisp, with intense pacing that will not let up until the last page, leaving the reader in awe of this masterfully crafted story.—Gregory Lee Renz, multi-award-winning author of Beneath the Flames and Beyond the Flames.
It’s 1853. Anders, the law at his heels, sails from Norway to seek a life of honor and respect in America. Maria, a boat builder’s daughter also seeking a new start, knows that she is just what Anders needs.
Daniel, a young plantation runaway, flees northward to “free soil.” Newlyweds Anders and Maria find him in their barnyard, hiding from slave catchers who can legally capture and return him to his master. Daniel’s plight draws Anders, and drags Maria, into the conflict that is tearing the country apart.
Price of Passage is a tale of three pioneers whose lives depend on one another. The coming of civil war puts one in the Navy, one in the Army, and one at home, where she strives to save her farm and herself from a merciless creditor and finds a unique solution.
Their harrowing journeys—filled with death and despair, love and hope—take Anders, Maria, and Daniel from New Orleans up the Mississippi River, into America’s wild heartland.
A compelling read, bringing about almost-haunting memories of the people of our past who came to these shores and forged a destiny of blood and tears as they sought their freedom.
I lost myself in the time as I read it, and put the book down, feeling as if I was part of those three lives, the true telling of a gifted author.
—LB “Brigid” Johnson, best-selling author of True Course: Lessons from a Life Aloft and Saving Grace: A Story of Adoption.
Three major characters. Their lives merge and diverge and merge again. Two will survive. One will not.
Buy the book. Larry will draw you in with his splendid storytelling.
—Jerry Peterson, author of crime novels and stories featuring James Early and many other rich, rural and small-town characters.