Resolution

by Amy Wadsworth

Eliza and Anna are a generation apart in age but are bound together by polygamy and the control of their husband, Joseph Brown. When Anna, the young second wife, wants to break free from her abusive marriage, it is only her sister wife who can make that possible.

Joseph Brown is the proud, strong-willed patriarch of his family in the new Mormon Zion. When his wife, Eliza, falls into a suicidal depression after the birth of her eighth baby, Joseph brings home fourteen-year-old Anna to live with them as a mother’s helper. Joseph is drawn to the beautiful teenager and within months makes her his second wife. Eliza is devastated but has no power to oppose her husband. The women build a difficult new relationship as sister wives who must share everything, until Joseph is imprisoned for polygamy and Anna must go into hiding. Separated from Eliza and Joseph, Anna yearns to live beyond the confines of her life, especially when her feelings for a young horse doctor move beyond friendship.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2024

Reviews

[Lisa-Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant novel about a Utah pioneer family and their experiences in 19th century polygamy, written by a local author. I enjoyed the vivid portrayal of the Salt Lake Valley during the early settlement years. “’Smell the air, Anna!’ Elisa stood stand still, her eyes closed as she breathed in the cold, sage-filled air. ‘I want to hold all this freshness close! Before it’s over and we’re all trapped inside for winter.’ Anna looked up at the raw mountains and pulled her shawl tight, as a chilled breeze shook free the last leaves of the cottonwood.” Wadsworth researched and reimagined her ancestors’ lives as Mormon immigrants thrown into a culture where men take multiple wives and women were expected to live together as one combined family.

Danish immigrant Anna is a teenager hired by Joseph Brown to help his severely depressed wife, Eliza, already a mother to eight babies. Before long, Anna becomes the second wife with babies of her own. The two women forge a strained relationship in the home. Wadsworth, like me, was raised with polygamy stories which desensitized us to the unique suffering these families experienced. In my family, the polygamy was only three generations back. As I got older, I began to question the idealized version I heard of these marriages. I have now read enough of my great-great grandmothers’ own letters to feel the pain involved. I have so much respect for what they went through. As Wadsworth describes Eliza’s thinking, “She had assembled a long time ago, various drawers in her mind where she could tuck away the thoughts she didn’t want to explore. Now, close to sixty years old, she had no interest in bringing any of them out into daylight.”

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy Wadsworth’s Resolution is a well-told story about polygamy in 19th Century America. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Wadsworth, a descendent of Utah polygamists, writes with sympathy and authority of the early Mormon experience. Her skill in making tangible the details of day-to-day life packs an emotional wallop. Her characters are so well developed, the past feels more like the present: the reader lives the story as it happens. Like A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel about polygamy in 20th Century Afghanistan, Wadsworth’s book gives the reader understanding and empathy for women in repressive patriarchal societies. It is a must read.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gets an extra star for being written by a fellow Granitian. The story of a polygamist family in Millcreek (then Mill Creek) from 1868-1918 succeeds in evoking a truer perspective of polygamy other than the sensationalist terror or faith-promoting, wasn't it wonderful, picture we often see. using journals of her ancestors Amy portrays life in those times with all the warts and conflicts. I enjoyed the local color of going up 13th east to Sugarhouse and the three dimensional characters evoking a sense of the time and place.

[Janet Frasier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Eliza and Anna are two strong women, sister wives, at a time when polygamy “deauthorized” by the LDS Church as officials were seeking statehood. This is a beautifully written first novel. I enjoyed the historical sense of the places that I now call home, but I think anyone who enjoys historical fiction, stories of the west, or simply enjoys seeing the world through the experiences of others will be glad they read this book. Very tender and very human.

[James T. Blanch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Novel

This is a beautifully written and fascinating story that illuminates the peculiarities and dark legacy of Utah in the Nineteenth Century. Highly recommended, especially for those with an interest in the history of the American West.

[Alexis Zaring · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Eliza and Anna finding comfort, assistance, sisterhood in each other while navigating the complexity of their situation was a well-written, beautiful story. I really enjoyed it.