Gifts of the Spirit

Set in northern Minnesota, Gifts of the Spirit recounts the story of a young woman who rises above her humble station without ever completely leaving it behind. Beginning with the ­influenza epidemic of 1918, the story continues into the 1920s on her family's small farm, where they live in relative calm, ­interspersed with moments of terror and excitement.

Patricia Eilola of Proctor, MN After some twenty years of teaching writing at Duluth East High School, Patricia Eilola finally took up the pen herself. A Finnish-American member of the Ladies of Kaleva, a grateful wife, mother of one daughter and grandmother to four, inveterate reader and writer, Patricia began writing Gifts of the Spirit and watched in amazement as it grew by leaps and bounds. “Often in the morning I had no idea where I was going, and six hours later a chapter had emerged. From where? I'm not sure, but I do know that it all came from so deep within me that it took on a life of its own. It simply became my appointed task to record that life.”