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| About the Book |
Book Title: Sparrow’s Song
Author Name: Marilee Aufdenkamp
Publication Date: Anticipated September 19, 2026
Publisher: Old Fort Press
Pages: 292
Genre: Historical Fiction
Any Triggers:
Trigger Warnings (brief, non graphic):
• Two off page suicides
• One short scene involving sexual harassment / coercion
• One brief scene of non graphic violence
Shortly after Kathryn Scheibel leaves her cigar making job in 1917, she enters the Army School of Nursing, a pioneering WWI nurse training program that offers the education she’s longed for but couldn’t afford. More than two decades later, her career carries her, as an instructor, into the Cadet Nurse Corps, the federal WWII nursing education initiative created to support the war effort. There she sees the same pressures she once felt now directed at students with even fewer protections. When two Black students are treated unfairly, Kathryn must decide how to respond.
Sparrow’s Song is a sweeping, intimate novel about resilience and belonging, rooted in the real history of wartime federal nursing education and the evolving landscape of modern American nursing. At its heart is a young immigrant woman pushing herself toward the advantages she’s convinced education will unlock, even as that drive pulls her away from the people and heritage she loves.
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3GyLvO
Author Bio:
Marilee Aufdenkamp is a retired nurse educator who taught undergraduate nursing for twenty six years before turning her full time focus to historical fiction. She writes early to mid twentieth century stories grounded in immigrant experience and working class life.
Her debut novel, Sparrow’s Song, was inspired by her early nursing career in Nebraska, where she came to admire the Germans from Russia she cared for at the end of their lives.
Originally from Southern California, she has spent her adult life in Nebraska.
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| read an excerpt |
Sparrow’s Song Excerpt 2:
The wedding dinner was served in the evening, followed by dancing. Albert Goeble played the button accordion and the young people celebrated until they were breathless. At midnight the music stopped.
“Come, girls, over here. Everyone gather in a circle around Clara.” Freida, the second bridesmaid, guided Clara to the center of the circle.
One of the boys handed a chair into the circle and Clara was seated. Kathryn’s mouth went dry and her legs began to quiver. She couldn’t keep from glancing at the door.
The young women and older girls laughed and sang as they circled Clara. Kathryn’s heart raced as she joined the rest of the group. Freida removed the crown wreath from Clara’s head and placed it on her lap. A length of fabric that matched Clara’s wedding dress was used as a blindfold. When Clara raised her hand, the singing and circling stopped. There was laughing and shrieking as Clara made her way, blindfolded, toward the girls in one section of the circle. Kathryn leaned so far back to avoid being touched by Clara that she nearly fell into the girl next to her. When Clara touched Bertha Roth, the girls cheered and clapped. Kathryn relaxed.
“Bertha is the next to be married,” they all called out as Clara removed her blindfold and handed her crown wreath to Bertha.
When things quieted down, Kathryn slipped out the front door and started toward home.
“Hey, wait and I’ll walk with you.” Rudy ran toward her.
She looked down the road. It had been a trying day. At well past midnight, it would be nice to have someone to walk home with. “Thank you, Rudy, but why do you want to walk me home when it is out of your way?”
He didn’t answer. As they walked along in the dark, his hand found hers. She stared into the night. How much easier it would be to just give in. Tears collected in her eyes as she trudged forward, her hand limp in Rudy’s palm.
“That was a real nice doin’s,” Rudy said, his voice husky.
She sighed. “Very nice.”
“Sure makes a fella wish he had a wife when he knows he could get called to the war at any time.”
Her heart beat faster and concentrating seemed impossible. Rudy’s hadn’t been one of the early numbers called, but he’d already told her that when he did get called up, he knew the local exemption board would determine him fit for duty.
Rudy let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder. “It’s nearly three months to the start of Lent. We’d have enough time.”
Kathryn shook free. “Rudy, we aren’t getting married. I agree, you should have a wife to wait for you if you get called to war, but it isn’t me. We want different things for ourselves, you and me. I plan to get an education. Maybe even to leave Gorham, I don’t know yet. But I know that, while the life you could offer a girl would no doubt be perfectly lovely, it isn’t a life I would be happy with and you wouldn’t be happy having me for your wife.” Breathing felt easier now. Whatever the future held, things would work out.
Rudy ran his hand through his hair. “You don’t think I would be happy having you as a wife, but I want to be the one to decide that for myself.”
She felt calm and confident now. “Rudy, why in the world do you think it has to be me? There are plenty of nice girls who would be glad to be married to you.”
“I don’t know. I’ve always known that you’re the one for me. Okay, no wedding for now, but would you do a fella who might be heading off to war soon a favor and at least be my girl for now?”
Kathryn swallowed hard. Gott, help me for what I am about to say. “Okay, Rudy, I’ll be your girl for now.” Inside her gloves, her hands were sweating. At least Großmutter will be pleased. “Here’s the terms, though, no serious business, and mostly just friends. Deal?”
Rudy let out a loud whoop and spun around to face Kathryn. “Deal.”
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