Tied With Twine

In 1920, Chicago, Halina is a volunteer aide at the hospital, which means she empties bedpans and holds the hands of men as they die. She lives in a close-knit community of Polish immigrants, held together with weather-worn pride, blind faith, and Old Country ways. While her befuddled parents struggle with haunting war-era tragedies, Halina saves her poker winnings for a train ticket to Anywhere so she can study nursing and get away from this stinking shack that smells of moldy catechism books, greasy kielbasa, and pillowcases drenched in sweat and whiskey drools. But bootleggers come to town, setting up their warehouse in the cellar of the abandoned house, next door to Baba, Halina's Gypsy-taught mentor. The old woman is the town healer, revered by the old-timers, taunted by the smart-mouth young hoodlums who wander the streets looking for trouble. She brews curses and cures in her kitchen made from roots and herbs laced with superstitions. Realizing her recipes are no match for the bootleggers' escalating violence, Baba taps young Halina to take over. Unsure she is up to the role, Halina finds herself patching up knife wounds, dispensing poultices, and prescribing amulets, with some book-learning thrown in, too. Then, one very difficult case tests her abilities and she must decide just how far she will go for one patient, a dying party girl with a rancid womb. Steal hospital medicine? Perform surgery in the backroom of a hardware store? In this ultimate confrontation of Old and New, Halina learns that healing is about more than medicine, more than concoctions mixed in Mason jars or administered by a syringe. There must also be hope, trust, and the will to try again.

• | Author: Pam Records
• | Publisher: Mp Records
• | Publication Date: Jul 11, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 420 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Fiction
• | ISBN-10: 0578627655
• | ISBN-13: 9780578627656