Levi's Will

Title: LEVI’S WILL
Author: W. Dale Cramer
Publisher: Bethany House
2009, reprinted from 2005
ISBN: 978-0-7642-0712-9
Genre: Inspirational/contemporary

Will Mullet decides to run away from his over-bearing father and the shame he caused the Amish church. In the darkness, when the family slept, Will, and his younger brother, Tobe, crept down the stairs and hopped a train heading south.

Will & Tobe’s Amish upbringing served them well. Both boys knew how to do a man’s work, but Will was running into problems in the work world. Pretending to be in the World was one thing. But there was a war going on. And Will was no longer claiming any part of the Amish. And so Will enlists in the military.

It is said that a man can’t go home again. When the war was over, can Will go home again? Will he even want to? And is there a way to build a bridge across generations?

I read LEVI’S WILL when it first came out and I enjoyed it then. I was thrilled when I got the chance to review it as a reprint. LEVI’S WILL is powerfully written, a story of relationships between fathers and sons, and between brothers.

The story is told more than shown, so as a reader I was kept distant, still, I couldn’t help but care for Will while not appreciating some of his decisions. I highly recommend LEVI’S WILL whether you read it in 2005 when it first came out or if this is the first time you discovered it. $13.99. 396 pages.