The Divide

Petersheim completes the tale begun in The Alliance in this entertaining post-apocalyptic romantic adventure. After an electromagnetic pulse permanently changed modern life, Moses Hughes, an Englischer pilot who helped Leora Ebersole’s Old Order Mennonite community escape to the mountains, can only hope that her new beau, Jabil Snyder, will make Leora happy. Jabil, the bishop’s nephew and heir apparent, is a good, kind man and, despite Leora’s lingering feelings for Moses, she agrees to marry Jabil. But when Moses, who left the camp after delivering Leora to safety, returns to the Mennonite compound, life quickly becomes complicated and all are forced to face the reality of their feelings. This love triangle is set against the backdrop of a fight for survival, battling nature as well as other humans. The Agricultural Resource Commission, a quasi-government agency, is attempting to violently round up those still living and enslave them in work camps. The Alliance is necessary reading to fully appreciate the characters and plot of this sequel. Petersheim invites readers to contemplate the question of what really matters when nearly all earthly objects are lost. (June)