Passages

“Passages, the third and final novel in Evie Yoder Miller’s sweeping Civil War era trilogy, is a masterful insight into individual lives and consciences struggling to discover where their political, familial, and spiritual allegiances lie. The multiple perspectives of her characters reveal not only the differences inherent in families, churches, and towns, but also the uniqueness and preciousness of each individual life. Set in an era of shocking loss of life, this brings an enormous humanity and poignancy to Miller’s novels. Her characters are our kin; we know them and participate in their lives. There is no better reading experience than this.”


—Suzanne Wolfe, author of The Confessions of X





“This powerful last volume of Evie Yoder Miller’s epic trilogy draws us deeply into the heartbreaks, losses, struggles, and persistence of its characters—Anabaptists caught up in the last bitter year of the Civil War. With evocative prose and skillful use of multiple narrators, Miller creates a vivid, poignant portrait of women, children, and others often left out of conventional war stories. Whether trapped in the path of predatory armies or in the relative safety of the North, the plain people in this taut, compelling novel find their values challenged and their lives disrupted by a war where, as one puts it, ‘Maybe no one counts as civilians anymore.’”


—Jeff Gundy, author of Without a Plea and Songs from an Empty Cage





“Evie Yoder Miller explores the moral horizon of the Civil War as it is reflected on the inner spiritual and emotional landscapes of historical figures shaped by the peace-church heritage of Amish, Mennonite, and Old German Baptist communities. In Miller’s complex and convincing narrative, life and joy persist amidst disaster and death, and the ordinary routines of daily obligation and piety supply the momentum to carry both characters and readers through the unfolding national catastrophe.”


—Gerald J. Mast, Professor of Communication, Bluffton University





“In the third and final installment of Evie Miller’s Scruples on the Line series, the characters do not flinch from the hard choices faced by Anabaptists who lived through the final years of the Civil War. Set in the thick of unfolding, true-life events whose outcomes were not yet known, the Amish, Mennonites, and German Baptists in Passages stay true to their pacifist calling. Drawn from a varied cast—young and aged, loyal and questioning, staunch and humble—these voices have much to offer anyone seeking to discern the way of peace in an increasingly divisive time.”


—Sara Phillips, Editor, Wisconsin Magazine of History