Forsaking Mimosa

It is 1937 in Mimosa, Mississippi, and fourteen-year-old Max Brinkmann is an active adolescent in the lively railroad he has a newspaper route, builds tree houses with his brothers, and prides himself in making and flying kites. He dreams of running track and playing baseball at Mimosa High School. But when Max's father, Josef (a devout Roman Catholic), announces that the small Catholic school in Mimosa is closing, Max's world is turned upside down. Not only is Josef moving the family to a farm in the middle of nowhere (to remove Max and his six younger siblings from the temptations of the city), the only option for a Catholic education is enrollment at nearby St. Agnes Academy, an all-girls school. Max is overwhelmed by classes of young women and more nuns than he has ever seen, not to mention a new home without electricity or indoor plumbing. Even worse, his hard-hearted, Rosary-a-day father seems intent on making his oldest son as miserable as possible. Friends? Forget them. Hobbies and dreams? Not hardly. Even one speck of something close to fun? Sorry, Max, go chop the wood. Forsaking Mimosa is a timeless story of a disillusioned boy who grows into manhood in a most unlikely environment. Along the way he comes to know the redeeming power of home as he faces tragedy, falls in love, and prepares to become a World War II soldier. These circumstances and others lead him to important discoveries about himself, his faith and, ultimately, his enigmatic father.