Publisher's Synopsis
Annie's Passing is a fictionalized biography of Annie Benedict Cassada Kelly. As opposed to much of what is today called "historical fiction," everyone in this novel is a real person who lived a finite life and is identified by his or her real name and other information available, mainly coming from my grandmother's diaries from 1901 and much of the 1920s. The goal of the novel is to combine the best aspects of both fiction and non-fiction writing in portraying life as it was in much of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century rural and small-town America. It is meant to transport my readers to a very different time and to instill in them an appreciation for what is truly good in human nature, close family relationships, friendship, charity, empathy, intimacy and other-directedness, doubtless among others. If the reader is moved and caused to seek the best that is in his or her soul, then the author's task has been achieved.
