Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    True Sisters
    True Sisters
    True Sisters
    Audiobook10 hours

    True Sisters

    Written by Sandra Dallas

    Narrated by Christina Moore

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Dubbed by Jane Smiley as a "quintessential American voice," Sandra Dallas has won over fans everywhere and become a frequent fixture on the New York Times best-seller list. Based on 19th-century history, True Sisters follows four women who pin their hopes for the future on a plan devised by Brigham Young to bring emigrants to Salt Lake City. Pushing two-wheeled handcarts loaded with all their life's belongings, the women set off on the 1,300-mile journey from Iowa City-and soon become fast friends even as perils mount around them.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 24, 2012
    ISBN9781464038389
    True Sisters
    Author

    Sandra Dallas

    SANDRA DALLAS, dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley in Vogue Magazine, is the author of over a dozen novels, including Little Souls and Where Coyotes Howl, many translated into a dozen languages and optioned for films. Six-time winner of the Willa Award and four-time winner of the Spur Award, Dallas was a Business Week reporter for 35 years, and began writing fiction in 1990. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado.

    More audiobooks from Sandra Dallas

    Related to True Sisters

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Jun 16, 2023

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      February’s BOOK CLUB

      Jan 5, 2023

      River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer (£18.99, HB, Headline) It’s Barbados 1834 and slavery has been abolished, but former slaves must work for another six years – for free! In an act of resistance, Rachel heads off through the Caribbean and South A

      4 min read

    • Article

      Best-sellers

      Feb 25, 2018

      Rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California, as reported by selected book stores: ___ Fiction 1."The Great Alone," by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin's: $28.99) A family discovers it is in peril after the father, a returning Vietnam War POW,

      1 min read

    • Article

      My Country Childhood

      Sep 4, 2019

      AUTHOR AND FORMER executive director of the Australian Writers Guild, Angela Wales, 71, moved from Bondi in Sydney to Walcha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW when she was five years old. Angela’s father, Bob, was to take over a struggling sheep prop

      7 min read

    • Article

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy

      Oct 6, 2022

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy
      2 min read

    • Article

      Tales From The Heart

      Jul 15, 2020

      Tales From The Heart
      6 min read

    • Article

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy

      Oct 6, 2022

      Weird World Folklore Frenzy
      2 min read

    • Article

      Van Travel In The Old West

      Mar 24, 2023

      Van Travel In The Old West
      2 min read

    • Article

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine

      Jan 1, 2021

      Once Upon A Time In A Deep, Dark Mine
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Good Ol’ Days

      Mar 30, 2018

      The Good Ol’ Days
      3 min read

    • Article

      In The Footprints Of The Ancestors

      Mar 2, 2023

      In The Footprints Of The Ancestors
      11 min read

    • Article

      The little NIGHTINGALE

      Dec 7, 2022

      The little NIGHTINGALE
      9 min read

    • Article

      Wwoofing Across The USA

      Apr 16, 2019

      Wwoofing Across The USA
      4 min read

    • Article

      Back to Black Beauty

      Apr 29, 2020

      Back to Black Beauty
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Back Of Beyond

      Mar 29, 2020

      The Back Of Beyond
      3 min read

    • Article

      Horsing Around

      Jan 30, 2019

      Horsing Around
      4 min read

    • Article

      We’ve Got Mail

      Dec 18, 2020

      We’ve Got Mail
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Parsonage in New Hope

      Dec 4, 2023

      A Parsonage in New Hope
      12 min read

    • Article

      Spruces

      Mar 25, 2023

      Spruces
      9 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      The British Queen of Arcadin

      Jan 11, 2023

      Iwould rather this article was more about Arcadia than about me,’ says Wendy Copage, quite sincerely – although she has done more than anyone in recent times literally to put this fabled but very real part of Greece on the map. So, yes, let's talk ab

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for True Sisters

    3.5/5

    81 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      True Sisters tells the story of The Martin Company, a group of settlers who left from Iowa to journey to Salt Lake City pushing their belongings in handcarts. Unfortunately, they left too late in the season to make it across the mountains before the snows began. Also, three other companies had gone earlier in the year and had used up all of the seasoned wood to make their carts forcing this group to set out with carts made of green wood which proceeded to fall apart on a regular basis. Dallas has created fictional members of the party and tells their stories as they make this horrible journey. Twenty-five percent of the group died, a rate higher than that of the more famous Donner Party. Members of the Martin Company endured horrible hardships caused by the weather and lack of food. Supply stations promised by church authorities were not provided, which only added to the strain of the crossing. In the Epilogue, Dallas tells what happened to the characters after they made it to Great Salt Lake City. It's hard to believe these people were not real! I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy historical fiction.
    • 2/5
      I didn't dislike this book exactly but im giving it two stars because while interesting I dont think I actually enjoyed it much. I am not religious, in fact I would go so far as to say I'm anti religion (specifically Christianity) so I mostly read this because I had liked the other books by the author. And even though I'm not Christian the puritan roots of the country I live in are still around today so reading and thinking about that was genuinely interesting.

      This book is eventful and engaging but its also A LOT. The journey the characters undertake is brutal and grisly. Pretty sure half the named characters are dead by the end of it. I guess check it out if you are interested in how wrong wagon trains could go and don't mind reading about peoples body parts being removed?

      Content warning for all that dying and also for mentions of CSA in the form of a teenager who used to be a survival sex worker.
    • 4/5
      True Sisters is told through the stories of four pioneer women in the Martin Handcart Company. It begins as they are leaving Iowa City in the summer of 1856 and tells the story of a group of Mormon settlers that left too late in the season through to their rescue on the trail and arrival in Salt Lake City. The women reach out to help each other through the journey.

      Nannie is traveling with her sister and brother-in-law after being abandoned by her sweetheart, who is also a member of the company. Louisa is married to an overbearing church leader that she believes speaks for God. Jessie, is traveling with her brothers, each one of them dreaming of the farm they will have in Zion. And finally, there's Anne, who hasn't converted to Mormonism but who has no choice but to follow her husband since he has sold everything to make the trip to Utah.

      Sandra Dallas writes that in researching this book, she read available journals from members of the Martin Handcart Company, other books and resources about the company and European converts to the LDS Church. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did but I found the story of strong women who found the way to go on through loss, starvation, and tragedy to be quite compelling. She brings a group of women to life on these pages and avoids political pronouncements about the LDS church. The author documented an interesting and often-overlooked chapter of westward expansion and helps us see it through the eyes of those who lived it.


      TBR 1304
    • 5/5
      I always learn something when I read one of Sandra Dallas's historical fiction. The last two books of hers I have read I have really enjoyed. This was a story of hardship, heartbreak and survival. I didn't know much about the Mormon's using handcarts to cross to Utah. This was a really good read.
    • 5/5
      Sandra Dallas writes stories that feature woman’s history and that history often occurs in the American West. In True Sisters she tells of the Mormons and her focus in on the incredible handcart treks that crossed the American plains and mountains in 1856. The last group, the Martin Company left Iowa City in late July and encountered terrible weather conditions and hardships, of the 575 people on this trek somewhere between 135 to 170 perished.In this novel the individual stories of some of the women on that trek are told and she brings to life both the women and the ordeal that they faced. Although the author drew on first hand accounts, her characters are fictional but she certainly is able to describe and make sense of their religion, their hopes, fears and some of the controversy that surrounded this event. Although most of these women were new converts to the religion and did not agree with the idea of plural marriages, it often made more sense to them once they had experienced the severity of carving a life out of this difficult environment and learning that sometimes the comfort and friendship of other women could make life easier. I thought the author dealt quite fairly with this issue, showing both the good and the ugly side of plurality.I found True Sisters a fascinating and moving story as these people struggled to survive and reach a place where they hoped to have a new life of religious freedom and prosperity.
    • 4/5
      From the book jacket In 1856, Mormon converts, encouraged by Brigham Young himself, and outfitted with two-wheeled handcarts, set out on foot from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, the promised land. The Martin Handcart Company … is the last (of five groups) to leave on this 1,300-mile journey. Earlier companies arrive successfully in Salt Lake City, but for the Martin Company the trip proves disastrous.

      My reactions
      Based on a true episode in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Dallas’s novel focuses on four fictional women and their families as they make the arduous trip toward salvation. Louisa is married to one of the most zealous and influential prophets and she firmly believes he speaks for God. Jessie and her two brothers plan to found a successful farm in the fertile valley they envision. Nannie is making the trek with her sister and brother-in-law, after having been abandoned on her wedding day. Anne hasn’t converted to Mormonism but has no choice but to follow her husband since he has sold the thriving business her father left them to fund the trip to Utah.

      The story is told in alternating vignettes, keeping the reader informed about each of these women and how they fare on the journey. I knew about the handcart expeditions but the focus of this novel makes for a very personalized history lesson on this episode in the setting of the American West. It also makes for a fast and compelling read. I did have a little trouble with the dialect and period phrases at times, but I could figure out from context what was meant.

      Dallas excels at painting the landscape of this journey across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. The reader feels the oppressive heat of late August, the gloriously crisp days of autumn, the cold and damp of trudging through a series of rainy days, the bitter sting of sleet, and the unending cold of a November blizzard. What I particularly liked about the novel, however, were the women themselves. Not just the main four characters, but several other women they encountered in their travels showed themselves to be strong, resilient, intelligent, resourceful, opinionated, clever, skilled, compassionate, helpful, determined and good judges of character. Yes, there were vain, whiny, weak women (and men) in the group as well, but the strong women shone. They were nothing short of incredible. And while Dallas chose to use totally fictional characters, the reader is wise to remember that there were hundreds of real men and women who made similar journeys, including the 625 souls who actually set out with the Martin Company.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating and horrific story based on the true story of the Mormon settlers who walked 1300 miles from Iowa City to Salt Lake City in the 1850s, using handcarts to haul all their possessions. THe Martin company was the last group to do this in 1856 and their trip was disastrous. The narrative focuses on some of the women, and rotates from one to another. While I did not find the voices of the individual women distinct enough, the story was utterly absorbing and heartbreaking.
    • 5/5
      I very much enjoyed this book. I learned lots about the Mormon faith and the trials faced by the early settlers of Utah. We spent part of our holiday last year in Utah but we went for the scenery not for the history so I didn't know much before reading this book.One of the things I hadn't realized was how many of the early settlers came from England to move to Zion (as they called the region around Salt Lake City). This book follows four women from the British Isles who took part in the Martin Handcart Company. Nannie was a maid in a hotel in Edinburgh but lost her position when the owners found out she had converted to Mormonism. Louisa married one of the American missionaries that came to England to convert people and her entire family crossed to New York in order to emigrate to Zion. Jessie is travelling with her two brothers. They farmed in England and hope to find farms in Zion. Anne and her husband owned a prosperous tailoring shop in London. When missionaries came into the shop looking for thread to mend their suit Anne's husband was intrigued enough to go to church. He converted but Anne thought the Mormon doctrine was foolish. However, when her husband sold the shop and said they were moving to Salt Lake City Anne had to go with him because she had no way of surviving in London.All of these women and 621 more left Iowa City on July 28, 1856 in the Martin Handcart Company. The handcarts were made of unseasoned wood and thus prone to breakdown. Due to the small size of the carts each adult was required to limit their possessions to only seventeen pounds. The emigrants were promised that there would be supplies provided by the Mormon Church along the way but this promise, like others, proved to be false. These people had to travel 1300 miles to Salt Lake City under their own steam with barely enough food to keep themselves alive. Add to that the cold weather, snow, sickness and injury and the journey seems like the worst sort of nightmare.I can't imagine making a journey like this but Dallas does an excellent job of portraying the difficulties and also the small mercies. I am amazed that anyone made it through. Dallas says in the Acknowledgments section that between 135 and 170 people in this company perished on the journey. Apparently there were more deaths among the men than among the women giving lie to the saying that women are the weaker sex.This was a fascinating book and I heartily recommend it. I have a copy of The Gathering of Zion by Wallace Stegner which Dallas refers to as one of her sources. I'll have to move it up the pile.
    • 3/5
      Sandra Dallas' latest book is about the Martin Handcart Company's migration west to Salt Lake City in 1856. Mormon converts emigrated from the British Isles and other European countries, but couldn't afford the approximately $300 cost to outfit a wagon, so they used handcarts instead. While they couldn't carry as much as emigrants in wagon trains, they could move faster. The Martin Company didn't leave Iowa until July with carts made of unseasoned wood. Companies that had gone before them arrived successfully in Salt Lake, but the Martin Company, slowed by the breakdown-prone carts, encountered flooded rivers, cold and ultimately snow. Over one quarter of the company perished along the way. I'm disappointed, because I expected to love this book and I didn't. A historical novel about westward migration with strong female characters? Should have been a slam dunk. Unfortunately, the book never really came alive for me. Seems like there were too many characters to develop any of them well. There are also some stretches that read more like non-fiction than fiction.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to like this story more than I did. The historical aspect of it intrigued me quite a bit. I had no idea that Mormons walked to Utah during this time of Westward expansion to settle in their land of Zion. Most of the characters in this story have arrived from Europe, many unprepared for the conditions that face them as they leave Iowa City 3 weeks late. The four main women, although sisters in faith, never really gel as any sort of cohesive unit in the story. The storyline strictly goes from one to another, hardship to hardship as they make their pilgrimage. Tallgrass still remains my favorite Sandra Dallas title.
    • 3/5
      I have always enjoyed reading Sandra Dallas, and this was no exception. Dallas presents a fictional account of the 1856 trek of a group of Mormons from Iowa City to Utah. I was amazed to learn that instead of using covered wagons, the group used handcarts because the price was more affordable. The group walked over 1300 miles pulling and pushing these poorly made carts. A few covered wagons accompanied the group to serve as a shelter for extra food and aid for the sick. Many of the women were pregnant and had babies en route to Utah. The group left late in the summer and encountered winter conditions before reaching the destination. An amazing story about determination.
    • 3/5
      Not one of my favorites. Too much historical fact...came across as "preachy".
    • 4/5
      It is 1856 and Mormons from all over converge on Iowa City to start their journey on foot to Salt Lake City and the "Promised Land.' Another emotional read for me, the hardships, deaths, these amazingly strong people, was just heartbreaking. I became so enmeshed in these characters lives, their sorrows and joys, their hopes and fears, that it was hard to turn away from this book. I am so glad that I did not live back then, don't think I could blindly follow my husband , nor put aside myself in blind obedience. I loved the women and the way they helped each other and each others families but I am not sure I will ever understand the Mormon faith.
    • 4/5
      Sandra Dallas is one of my favorite authors, but this was one of her books that I had a hard time reading. Maybe it is because I'm very familiar with this story because it is part of my religious heritage. Historically it is clear that something went wrong with this particular handcart company, because there were eight other companies that made the trip without any significant trouble, both before and after this particular incident. It was hard for me to see all the leaders of this company portrayed as power hungry zealots, but possibly that is exactly why this handcart company got into such trouble. It was also hard to read about the terrible experiences that these characters suffered and to have it be because they were urged to trust in God and be foolish about basic common sense stuff. I don't believe God wants us to be foolish. He gave us minds to think and reason. It's hard for me to reconcile this truth that I have been taught over a lifetime of membership in the Mormon church with the picture that Ms. Dallas gives of the church leaders in this particular group. This book did make me think, so in that sense the author was successful in creating a good experience for me.
    • 5/5
      True Sisters tells the story of The Martin Company, a group of settlers who left from Iowa to journey to Salt Lake City pushing their belongings in handcarts. Unfortunately, they left too late in the season to make it across the mountains before the snows began. Also, three other companies had gone earlier in the year and had used up all of the seasoned wood to make their carts forcing this group to set out with carts made of green wood which proceeded to fall apart on a regular basis. Dallas has created fictional members of the party and tells their stories as they make this horrible journey. Twenty-five percent of the group died, a rate higher than that of the more famous Donner Party. Members of the Martin Company endured horrible hardships caused by the weather and lack of food. Supply stations promised by church authorities were not provided, which only added to the strain of the crossing. In the Epilogue, Dallas tells what happened to the characters after they made it to Great Salt Lake City. It's hard to believe these people were not real! I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy historical fiction.