Introduction

Seventeen-year-old Abigail Milton’s family has fallen destitute and sent her from England to America to ease their burden. She carries this loss—and a dark secret—with her.

Widowed Douglas Elling agrees to host Abby as a favor to her father. Douglas’s attempts to guide Abby rekindle his deeply buried hopes of improving people’s lives—and something in him awakens.

Set twenty years before the Civil War, and filled with authentic detail about The Underground Railroad and the Abolitionist movement, TROUBLE THE WATER is a memorable and moving debut novel about painful histories, new hopes, social change, and second chances.

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Excerpt

CHAPTER TWO

Charleston, South Carolina 1845

Abby glanced back from the pier toward the empty steamship, her face sticky with sweat and sea dreck, and she wondered again whether this journey hadn’t been a grand mistake. She despised Lancashire, but at least there, she wouldn’t have been trapped in this stifling Charleston heat, not knowing a soul. It was too late though, and there wasn’t any use in wishing that her foul bastard uncle hadn’t ruined her, ruined her plans, ruined her England. She edged her brow with her soiled sleeve and scanned the Harbor crowds once more, searching for her escort. She had been waiting nearly two hours, watching the crush of people swarming around her while her stomach grumbled for food. Probably it was safe to assume he wasn’t going to show. Her Da’ had sworn to her-- on his only good carving knife-- that Douglas Elling would receive her with generosity. She should risk this journey he had said, accept Elling’s charity, never minding that the man had returned only one of her father’s letters in nearly two years. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss how parents are portrayed in this novel
2. How do friends and friendship define this story?
3. Secrets play a determining role in the lives of key characters. Discuss.
4. Why do you think Friedland chose the title of the book? How does it relate to the story as a whole?
5. Most readers want Abby to succeed. What is it that makes her so compelling?
6. The ending a surprise. Did you see it coming? What do you foresee for the boys?

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