Nancy Werking Poling, author of this historical novel, tells the story of Leander Smith, pastor of a1910 Brethren congregation in Missouri. Leander led a storied life. Among his many feats and adventures, he served as US congressman to North Carolina from 1897 to 1903, traveled the Holy Land, baptized 180 believers, and hunted with Teddy Roosevelt in the Dismal Swamp.
The thing is, none of that actually happened.
This book follows the many lives and lies of Elias Leander Muller who, in the wake of the Panic of 1893, abandons his family and reinvents himself. Eventually conning his way into Brethren pastorship through some very strategically placed articles in The Gospel Messenger, precursor to today's Messenger magazine, Leander tells lie after lie until even he couldn't keep them straight anymore.
"Meticulously researched a richly detailed, Poling demonstrates how elusive ancestors, fractured records, racism, and deliberate deceptions confound family historians while honoring the complex and complicated human stories beyond what we find in records." - Rev. Kate Penney Howard
"Evocative historical fiction that plunges readers back into the decades after the Civil War and a lovable scoundrel's efforts to climb out of poverty and recreate himself." -Marylee MacDonald, author of Surrender
