When my dear friend, Jheri, loaned me her copy of a book titled Finding Flora, I knew immediately upon reading its synopsis that it would be one I would thoroughly enjoy. I don’t believe I was aware, however, of how much of an impact this text would have on me prior to reading it, and I’m so grateful to Jheri for introducing me to this absolute masterpiece.
If the opening paragraph didn’t give it away, Finding Flora is, without any doubt, a read and not a rid.
Finding Flora begins by sharing with the readers the story of Flora, a young Scottish woman who is desperate to escape her new husband, who is abusive. So desperate, in fact, that within the first few pages of the book, she leaps from a moving train to distance herself from him. Eventually, Flora secures the rights to claim land located in Alberta to live and work as a homesteader. Naturally, Flora has no clue what she’s doing when she first begins, but upon meeting her neighbours, who also happen to be female farmers, she begins to learn the essentials of farming and homesteading with the assistance of these neighbouring women.
Flora and her fellow female farmers face hardship after hardship in their attempts to establish themselves as working women in agriculture, with hardships primarily stemming from other men residing in the area. They refuse to give in, and the entire story is about women banding together to find a strength they never knew they possessed in order to prove men, and society as a whole, wrong.
I fucking loved reading this book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading. It’s inspiring as hell, and for me, quite relatable in the agricultural element and therefore being looked down upon and not taken seriously as a woman working in agriculture.
Photo by Hümâ H. Yardım on Unsplash
ontheedgeofeverything 