A Hundred Crickets Singing

By Cathy Gohlke

Description:

In wars eighty years apart, two young women living on the same Appalachian estate determine to aid soldiers dear to them and fight for justice, no matter the cost.

1944. When a violent storm rips through the Belvidere attic in No Creek, North Carolina, exposing a hidden room and trunk long forgotten, secrets dating back to the Civil War are revealed. Celia Percy, whose family lives and works in the home, suspects the truth could transform the future for her friend Marshall, now fighting overseas, whose ancestors were once enslaved by the Belvidere family. When Marshall’s Army friend, Joe, returns to No Creek with shocking news for Marshall’s family, Celia determines to right a longstanding wrong, whether or not the town is ready for it.

1861. After her mother’s death, Minnie Belvidere works desperately to keep her household running and her family together as North Carolina secedes. Her beloved older brother clings to his Union loyalties, despite grave danger, while her hotheaded younger brother entangles himself and the family’s finances within the Confederacy. As the country and her own home are torn in two, Minnie risks her life and future in a desperate fight to gain liberty and land for those her parents intended to free before it’s too late.

With depictions of a small southern town “reminiscent of writings by Lisa Wingate” (Booklist on Night Bird Calling), Cathy Gohlke delivers a gripping, emotive story about friendship and the enduring promise of justice.

Book Takeaway:

No matter what we judge to be true, it is clear that wars and the causes they battle in the first place are of our own making. The important question is not whose side is God on, but are we on God’s side and will we allow Him to change our hearts to become more like His? In that transformation, our cacophony is more likely to become a hymn of praise, a symphony of very different instruments—lives lived to bring Him glory and praise and to dwell with one another in harmony.
Listening with a determination to understand the why behind rhetoric and actions, even those we deplore, can help us reach across the divide to one another as human beings, discard lies and propaganda, defuse anger, embrace truth on every side, deal straightforwardly with consequences, and build pathways to a better tomorrow.
I’m reminded of a poem that I learned while growing up, “If We Only Understood,” attributed to Rudyard Kipling. The final lines capture the heart of its message: “We would love each other better if we only understood.”
I hope that A Hundred Crickets Singing is a step in that direction.

Why the author wrote this book:

Long have I loved the characters brought to life in my first No Creek novel, Night Bird Calling. They are friends and family, some cohorts and some folks I’ll forever hold at bay, the small town we all might have grown up in or imagined from a bygone era.
I was not ready to leave those dear souls behind but felt eager to better understand their past and wanted to imagine their future. In them and their history I saw a microcosm of our world, of our past, and wondered what they might have to say to us, so many decades later.
I felt the same about our national narrative on race. I needed to understand more about the past in order to make sense of the present and garner realistic hope for the future.
In history classes there has long been a gap between the abolition of slavery in the 1860s and the march for Civil Rights in the 1960s, let alone where we are today. What happened? How and why did Jim Crow first appear? Why did we, as Americans, allow the oppression and cruelty of Jim Crow after fighting a bloody civil war meant to end slavery?

Why was there still division of race in the US military during WWII, and what was the result of that? Why were black American soldiers treated differently in Europe than they were in America—even after fighting a war to end Nazi supremacy, persecution, and oppression of other races and minorities? Were black American hopes of “double victory”—victory in the war and victory at home--realistic?