Set in the early twentieth century, Venna Hastings opens with a fourteen-year-old violin prodigy at a crossroads. Born into a family of Mormon converts, Venna possesses a fierce talent and fiercer independence. Her music professor and her aunt pull her in different directions, each representing competing visions of who she should become. Beneath her youthful self-confidence lies a profound grief: her longing for a mother she never knew drives her search for something beyond herself, something transcendent. The novel traces her gradual awakening to questions of faith, doubt, and belonging in an era when Eastern philosophies collided with American religious fervor. Farr writes with sympathy about the particular agony of growing up between worlds, never quite certain which tradition holds the truth she seeks. The book endures because it captures something universal about the pain of inherited belief and the courage required to either embrace or reject it on one's own terms. For readers drawn to historical coming-of-age narratives, particularly those exploring the forgotten corners of American religious history, Venna's story offers a window into a world where conversion was both spiritual revolution and family drama.
