A Young Wife

A Young Wife
By Pam Lewis
Simon & Schuster, 2011. 289 pgs. Historical Fiction.

Based loosely on the life of the author’s grandmother, A Young Wife tells the story of Minke van Aisma. At the age of 15, Minke is sent to Amsterdam from her small fishing village to care for the dying wife of a wealthy businessman named Sander DeVries. After only a few months, the wife dies and Minke is caught completely off-guard when Sander proposes marriage and a plan to leave the Netherlands for opportunities in Argentina. Mistaking an exciting infatuation with lasting love, Minke agrees to the marriage and is soon saying farewell to her family and homeland. However, life in Argentina fails to live up to Sander’s promises and Minke is forced to face the consequences of her rash decision to marry a man she barely knew.

I thought the most interesting part of A Young Wife was the descriptions of turn of the century Netherlands, Argentina, and New York. Each stage of Minke’s journey illuminated the lives of immigrants who left the Old World searching for happiness in the New. I finished the book a bit curious as to what portions of the story were true and which portions were fictionalized. The plot’s conclusion seemed a bit too coincidental to be believable but sometimes truth can actually be stranger than fiction, so you never know.

CZ