The Wings of Morning
Murray Pura sets his tale of inspirational romance in the Amish community of Pennsylvania as the world prepares for the outbreak of World War I. Young Amish Jude Whetstone, the blacksmith’s son, roars into the community piloting a yellow biplane as the neighborhood stands speechless. Jude introduces Lyyndaya Kurtz, his childhood friend, to the world of aeroplanes as he flies her over the village. She laughs, urging him to “Go into the sun as fast as you can and do a barrel roll.” War breaks out and the U.S. drafts men to serve in Europe. Although Amish are conscientious objectors, Jude and other village boys are still drafted into the Army and sent to France. As a flying ace he must decide whether to sacrifice himself to the war and save his friends or to endure abuse and torture by American troops who resent Amish anti-war beliefs.
This novel illuminates the war years in a personal way. The reader enters into the love story of Jude and Lyyndaya as they confront separation, life-changing decisions, and the possibility of shunning by the Amish community. The Wings of Morning shows how the emergence of wartime and new 20th-century technologies impacted the outlook of the Amish in the early 1900s.
