Tumbleweeds Burning a Novel

Heinrich and Anna Marie Oster are invited by the Czar to move to Russia. Their excitement runs high when a son of their family is selected to serve in theCzar's elite body guard, the Imperial Hussars, and life is good. Life next to the Royals is full of thrills and color, but before long thecorruption and greed in high places are exposed, and soon bitter persecution ofthe family makes their days difficult. Their children flee to America and acceptthe government's offer of free homestead acres on the great prairies of theheartland. The free land, however, extracts a heavy price. As they wrestle their sodhouse out of the stubborn buffalo grasses, they discover that their new "e;palace onthe prairies"e; is only three miles from the Native sons of the warriors who scalpedGeorge Armstrong Custer. It leaves their days uneasy, their nights uncertain. At every turn, Nature confronts them with immense battles, from killingblizzards and sweeping fires, to plagues of grasshoppers. From years of deathdealingdrought where nothing grows but tumbleweeds and biting flies, tointernational conflicts that drastically change their lives. Through it all they cometogether in faith and turn their little spot of earth into the breadbasket of theworld.