Arkansas author Robyn Leatherman’s novel Summer Rain tells the story of a young Cherokee woman named Rain who comes of age at the time of the Cherokee Removal.
The whole title of the book is Summer Rain: Getsikahvda Anitsalagi (The Removal of the People).
This journey begins in Georgia in a typical Cherokee village in the early 1800s, where a young girl and her best friend realize there are strangers poised to take their land and home away from the Cherokee and from neighboring tribes.The girls witness the birth of the new written language of Tsalagi in the year 1821 and the acquisition of a printing press in the year 1827. The Cherokee Phoenix would mark the first newspaper to ever be printed and circulated by a Native American tribe.
Rain falls in love with a white boy and is forced to follow her heart and save her own life, or to remain loyal to her family, knowing that in doing so, she could lose not only her true love, but also her life.
Both the author and her husband are Cherokee. Leatherman’s research into the period and events includes stories told by grandparents. The book can be ordered at the publisher’s website, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.