Historical novels are a popular genre these days. There are many good historical novels that tend to emphasize a particular historical event, person, group or historical period, giving the drama and definitive human experiences in an individual's life or a family's experience. Such novels are an important and engaging way of learning and understanding history, particularly the history of "the common people."

A new novel from the pen of Judge Ben Z. Grant is an exceptional historical novel depicting the struggles of the time period around 1792 and the experience of the Highland Clearances in Scotland.

There was a great wave of mass emigration in 1792, a year known to the Scottish Highlanders as "the Year of the Sheep," when thousands were forced from their traditional homes to new and often unwelcoming places and forced to take up harsh and sometimes unfamiliar tasks.

Many of the Scots who were forced from the Highlands in 1792 ultimately found their way to America and a new life and future. This story is about how one such family endured and an individual from that family found her way to the new nation in America and to a new life.

The author presents his story through the experiences and eyes of an eleven year old girl and her association with her grandfather and family.

The events are heart-rending and deeply-hurtful. There is a lesson in this for everyone who is thoughtful and willing to read. This is fiction, but it is fiction powered by the historical realities of that distant time when life was harsh and the poor were virtually powerless.

It is the "true story" that was repeated many times over in family and individual lives.

One of the obvious truths that one finds in this story is that when a face is put on the tragedy it is difficult for the one in power to avoid responding in a positive way. This is what happens when Bree and her grandfather persist in seeing the landlord and confronting him with what he has done in forcing them out of the long-time home and land.

Of course, they send a letter ahead that actually prepares the Lord for their visit and for their request of him.

As long as the landholders could not envision the pain and problems of the people displaced and destroyed by their clearances, there was nothing done.

Some of the actions were extremely cruel and costly for those attacked. They lost their homes and possessions and livelihoods, sometimes their lives. They lost their cattle and their lives, becoming vagabonds and nomads until they could find a place to live and begin their productive lives again.

Such enormous losses are hard for us to understand or realize, but they were real.

Indeed such cruelties are being repeated in other parts of the world in other families and lives still to this day.

The Scottish Highland Clearances was part of a much larger displacement of persons and management of properties in English society. This doesn't make the story any less dramatic or disturbing in that it was part of a larger movement involving properties and persons. There were several "waves" of these people movements moving people off lands and displacing them in large numbers. The story of the Highland Clearances is part of this larger drama that was played out as industrialization and commerce changed the face of the world in that time. The 17th and 18th centuries brought numerous changes to rural and urban centers in England, Ireland and Scotland.

The human pathos of this story should bring to each of us a renewed determination to standup for the poor and powerless in an age when power, politics and wealth has desensitized many people, particular people in powerful political positions.

Grant's accurate depiction of the confiscation of grandfather's sword by the authorities rendered him and his family defenseless and capable of being victimized. This was the intention of the British government and authorities in actions that came from Parliament and other authorities during this tragic time. It was a step to prevent rebellion and joint opposition to whatever the authorities and the people in prominence wanted to impose on these people. No one could then resist the power as it came against them. This is still true in other parts of the world, even as it could be in our own country. This is very much the problem regarding the possession of weapons in our day.

In the displacement of families then and in other times often these families lost, not only their clothes, furniture, but also their weapons and other important belongings. They often lost family members.

In this story the McDonald family lost the grandmother who was critically ill when they were forced out of their home without a place to go. Not only did they lose their home and the grandmother, they lost their cows and other valuables and grandfather's sword. This is a great story, one based in real life and true history. If you are interested in this good book you should go to http://www.bewrite.net and seek out Grant's book. Find a copy of Judge Grant's novel and read it.

I hope that you will determine to read Judge Grant's excellent novel. If you have comments or observations on novels or Ben Grant's book, I would like to hear from you and will appreciate you sharing your thoughts and ideas with me on reading and novels. You may contact me by e-mail at jhopkins@etbu.edu or drjerryhopkins@yahoo.com. I can also be reached by "snail mail" at Dr. Jerry Hopkins, East Texas Baptist University, 1209 North Grove Street, Marshall, TX 75670, or by phone at 903-923-2087.