Set during the Great Depression, The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik is the story of two strong-hearted strangers, bent but not destroyed by grief and financial destitution. Vesta Blonik, an unmarried farm woman from Minnesota and Gordon Crenshaw, confined to a North Carolina mental institution after the death of his wife and child, meet through misleading letters written by Gordon’s family members. But reality doesn’t look at all like what was promised, and when they learn the truth, the two must find a path forward, together or apart.

Praise for The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik

“An exquisite, utterly absorbing story…. so compellingly painted of a whole other America nearly a hundred years ago: a world where a few dollars in a tattered envelope mean enough for food and bed to sleep in and the land can hardly grow wheat. I lived every page through the resourceful Vesta, utterly absorbed as she struggles to make a life for herself, unable to put the book down. Wonderfully done, so rich and real.”

—Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage: a novel of the Brontë Sisters, Claude and Camille and The Boy in the Rain, American Book award recipient

“The Resettlement of Vesta Blonik…is a lovely, unputdownable novel of resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship… It seems Gordon is looking for a wife... Beautifully written and emotionally compelling, this novel will have readers impressed by Vesta’s leap of faith and by the healing power of simple compassion.”

—Susan Coventry, author of The Queen’s Daughter and Till Taught by Pain

"Vesta Blonik is used to making do with the scraps others toss her. But when her father gives up the family farm without providing for her, she finds the courage to fashion those scraps into a life. As I witnessed Vesta use integrity, steadiness and compassion to overcome poverty, duplicity and discrimination, I found myself cheering out loud. Cline has created a heroine we can all root for."

–Heather Newton, author of Under the Mercy Trees