I Will Send Rain is both bleak and hopeful. You will feel a lot of things while reading this perfectly crafted, emotional story of an Oklahoma farm family living through the Dust Bowl.
Samuel and Annie Bell move from Kansas to Oklahoma, set up a home, and have two children Birdie and Fred. The Bell family clings to their land and hope rain will save their crops. The pacing brings the reader into the Dust Bowl slowly and the way Meadow’s develops each character pulls you into a world where each day is a struggle to survive. Samuel, Annie, and Birdie plod along, secretly hoping to escape their hard lives. Samuel builds an ark to prepare for a flood. Annie imagines life with another man. Birdie falls in love. Fred tries to untangle the growing secrets in his family.
This atmospheric and character-driven story allows the reader to know the Bell family and grieve with them. I Will Find Rain is gritty and raw. The story is wonderfully told through beautiful and stark prose and is reminiscent of William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, and John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath.