The End of Always: A Novel
Like much of the rest of the nation, Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1907 is not a fit place for a young girl to come of age.  Poverty and violence abound and will prove to be a near-fatal combination for impressionable Marie Reehs.  Emotionally scarred by her mother’s brutal and unexplained death, Marie suspects her father was responsible and longs to flee his dictatorial and abusive home before she becomes his next victim.  When Marie falls in love with August, a charismatic youth who has already witnessed her family’s worst episode, Marie believes she is destined for a life where true love will sustain and protect her.  Within days of their marriage, however, August proves to be every bit as savage and cruel as her father.  Beaten to within an inch of her life, Marie bravely files for divorce, an unheard-of act of self-preservation in those days.  Based upon her own ancestry, Davenport’s deeply affecting historical novel of a courageous young woman’s struggle to survive in an overtly sexist time is both a sobering and stirring tribute to determination. --Carol Haggas