Insight / Digital original

Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother Connie who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma a cantankerous woman who can’t hold her tongue; and her baby sister Jessie — who the family discovers is a seer. Along with the burdens of a difficult family Elvira also bears a daunting secret — she encouraged her father to enlist in WWII. Ever since he was declared missing in action Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death. But Jessie also carries a secret about the father she never met — a secret so powerful that when her mother Connie learns of it she sends the family on a journey to California with a traveling preacher. This powerful teen manuscript tells the story of a family’s journey toward forgiveness and a young woman’s journey toward faith