A Season for the Heart

By J. M. Hochstetler

Description:

Can they find their way home to the land, to the Lord—and to each other?

May 1945. Germany has surrendered to the triumphant Allied forces, while the war against Japan grinds toward a bloody end. Just graduated from high school, Ellie Hershberger longs to explore the wider world, unrestricted by her conservative Mennonite church. But when all her dreams are suddenly shattered, she questions whether home is a place to escape from—or where her heart’s deepest desires truly lie.

Refusing to join the Mennonite church he grew up in, Jude Mast enlisted in the Marines and ended up in the South Pacific. Now battle-scarred and crippled, he’s forced to return to the community he thought he’d left behind forever. Yet here, where he believes he'll never be forgiven or accepted, could he discover a grace he never conceived of and a love that changes everything?

During that scorching summer, while the war rages toward its climax in the Pacific, the skies remain as hard and unyielding as iron. But in God’s gracious time there will come a season for the heart.

Book Takeaway:

Sometimes we find our heart's dearest desires right where God planted us.

Awards:

Why the author wrote this book:

I wrote this story to honor my parents who met in July 1942 before my father shipped out to the South Pacific, wrote letters all through the rest of the war, and married when he came home in September 1945.