WESTMINSTER WEST

In 1884 Vermont, two sisters confront their natures—one the workhorse of the family, one the delicate invalid—in a historical novel from Haas (Clean House, 1996, etc.). When Sue Gorham was 13, her sister Clare, 12, caught a fever, seizing their mother's attention. Sue was left with the backbreaking work of maintaining a farm household; three years later, Sue is still slaving away resentfully, and Clare has become a chronic invalid, her ongoing case of the vapors a means to a life of ease and attention. When Sue finds a mysterious diary in the attic, the shock of the information it holds (that her father, a Civil War veteran, was tortured by the events of the war) makes her ill. Sent to bed, Sue sinks into the role of the invalid, believing herself too ill to assume normal life; she doesn't mind seeing Clare forced to take over her duties. When the arsonist who has been burning barns in the area strikes her family's farm, Sue knows she must spring into action if they are to survive. Other than Mama, who is unbelievably dim, this novel is inhabited by vivid characters who offer a real glimpse of the labor-driven existence of 19th-century life. Haas's chronicle of chores, concerns, and motives of members of the community makes for a thought-provoking story of the expectations of men and women after the Civil War, and the tensions caused when one of them changes the rules. (Fiction. 10+)