Coal and Ashes: A Novel

From the frozen plains of prehistory to twentieth-century Lithuania and America, Coal and Ashes traces a family – some who immigrated to America, and others who stayed in place—caught in the sweep of fate, chance, war, and human resilience.It begins ten thousand years ago, when a lone man narrowly avoids death, thus keeping in motion a lineage that will stretch across millennia. From his descendants emerge Mary and Martin in Lithuania—two young people whose lives will be shaped by loss, a world at war, and a love story.After Mary and Martin immigrate to America, they’re brought together by circumstance. They build a life in Pennsylvania’s coal country, even as economic collapse, labor struggles, and the shadows of two world wars loom. Across the ocean, their friends and family face persecution, displacement, and the horrors of the Holocaust.Divided into sweeping parts—from imagined ancestors and medieval predecessors to modern immigrants—this epic war saga explores the different kinds of love, the consequences of choice, and the fragile threads that connect generations. Read more