Introduction

Austin Returns with a Multi-Generational Historical Novel

Geesje de Jonge crossed the ocean at age seventeen with her parents and a small group of immigrants from the Netherlands to settle in the Michigan wilderness. Fifty years later, in 1897, she's asked to write a memoir of her early experiences as the town celebrates its anniversary. Reluctant at first, she soon uncovers memories and emotions hidden all these years, including the story of her one true love.

At the nearby Hotel Ottawa Resort on the shore of Lake Michigan, twenty-three-year-old Anna Nicholson is trying to ease the pain of a broken engagement to a wealthy Chicago banker. But her time of introspection is disturbed after a violent storm aboard a steamship stirs up memories of a childhood nightmare. As more memories and dreams surface, Anna begins to question who she is and whether she wants to return to her wealthy life in Chicago. When she befriends a young seminary student who is working at the hotel for the summer, she finds herself asking him all the questions that have been troubling her.

Neither Geesje nor Anna, who are different in every possible way, can foresee the life-altering surprises awaiting them before the summer ends.

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Discussion Questions

1. At the beginning of the book when Geesje was considering if she should write her story she thinks, “What I’m asking is, should I tell the truth about all the times I despaired of God’s love? The times when I doubted and my faith was shaken and I turned away from Him in anger? Nay, sometimes it was more than anger—it was rage. Those feelings are part of my story too, the part I’ve kept hidden all these years. Do they belong in this book they are making about our past? “

What do you think? Is it important for the grandchildren and generations to fully know what happened and why? Do those feelings belong in a story about the past or should they be left out to protect the reader?

2. Did you trust Hendrik at the beginning of the book? Did you trust his conversion? How did the deJonge family witness to the soldiers?

3. A recurring theme in Waves Of Mercy is young love, “Who we fall in love with and who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with is such a huge part of everyone’s story. Our choices affect the rest of our lives, our children’s lives. Faith gets entangled in our love stories.”

Why is it hard for parents to trust young love in their children? All the characters in the book place certain expectations on those they love, which expectations were fair, which were unfair? What advice would you give the couples in this book? Anna & William, Derk & Caroline, Gessje & Maarten or Hendrick?

4. In Chapter 19, Hendrick walks out of the woods and seemingly comes back to life for Geesje after she has already married Maarten. What was going through your mind when you read this? How do you think Maarten or Hendrick felt? If you were a character in this love triangle, what would you have done?

5. What did Maarten represent in Geesje’s life? Did they “settle” for each other? How and why do you think they stayed together? Were they happy?

6. Many times in Geesje’s story people came to her because she was a “strong woman of faith” and yet she never saw herself that way. How would you characterize her? What events in her life made her faith grow? Can you think of women in your life who are “strong women of faith?” Do you know their story?

7. Why do you think Anna’s parents were so afraid to tell her the truth? Were they right to keep the truth from her?

8. What did you feel when Anna looked at the picture of Christina and said, “Yes, she is my momma?”

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