Local Author Book Sale
The Road Home
by Jeanna Knoll
Conde Alumni - Class of 1988
- $12 - Signed Copy delivered at Reunion with your tickets.
- Purchase available on the Tickets page.
- Contact the author at jeannaknoll@gmail.com to order and receive a signed copy via USPS.
Author's Note Excerpt:
Have you ever watched those shows on the History channel where archeologists, historians, and sociologists try to recreate the scene and tell a story of the day to day lives of the people in long lost civilizations simply by sifting through centuries old rubble of buildings that once stood, tiny shards of pottery, and broken bits of refuse? Those shows always amaze me. What fabulous imaginations those people have. While watching them spin their fantastic tales, I imagine what the real people of those long lost civilizations might think of those stories. My guess would be that the experts are way, way off and it was nothing like that at all.
With the closing of the school, the demolition of the old buildings on Main Street, and the passing of so many treasured “grownups” from my childhood, I’ve started to feel as if all trace of my life is disappearing behind me and soon no one will ever know I existed. There will not be any rubble for the archeologists, historians, and sociologists of the future to sift through to recreate my story.
The tiny little world in which I existed as a child is already vastly different than it was then and soon will be lost completely, never to be recovered. There should be something I can do to stop that from happening, some little way that I can at least preserve a piece of my soon to be lost civilization. I guess I will just have to tell my own story before I leave.
Excerpt from Aberdeen Magazine article, The Authors of South Dakota:
Jeanna’s book, The Road Home, is based on her memories of growing up in Conde.
“My dad passed away in a farming accident, and I realized that nobody is promised tomorrow,” she said. “Writing the story was therapeutic for me and publishing it both fulfilled a goal and changed my life. The setting is a romanticized version of my hometown, and I realized right along with the characters in my story that pieces of your friends and family stay with you throughout your journey and will always help you find your way home.”
