Wintering Well

From the author of Stopping to Home and Seaward Born comes this remarkable story of hardship, determination, and the joy of finding the right path in life.

All Will Ames ever wanted to do was farm. But when he's injured in a farm accident, Will is left without a leg—and without his future.

After a winter of healing, Will knows his future must be away from the farm that he loves. He and his younger sister Cassie go stay with their older sister and her husband in the nearby town of Wiscasset. There, with the excitement of Maine's new statehood as a backdrop, Will finds that being disabled can be a social handicap as well as physical one. But with hard work he can win respect—and find exciting possibilities for his future.

Living in town opens Cassie's eyes too. She sees Will considering career options that aren't open to her as a young woman in 1820, and she wonders if she can be fulfilled by simply keeping a house and a family—or if she can find her own exciting place in the world.

Told through Cassie's journal entries, Wintering Well is a story of resilience and self-discovery in the face of hardship.