An enjoyable work of historical fiction based on a true story and real-life characters. Abraham Byers and his wife Elizabeth head up the Byers Settlement in 1890s Michigan, a small group of likeminded family and friends. Disillusioned with the way the country is going, when Abraham comes across a book called The Product-Sharing Village by Walter Thomas Mills, published in 1894, he feels that he has found the answer to society’s ills and is determined to start a product-sharing community of his own, the Hiawatha Colony. It doesn’t take much guesswork to realise that things are not going to go smoothly and it will all end in tears, and the book charts the rise and fall of the community. Such Utopian communities were very popular in late 19th century America, and the Hiawatha Colony was one of many, but the issues it faced were common to them all – how to get a group of people to live together amicably and without conflict. The novel is well-researched and successfully gives a voice to those who have left little or nothing in the historical record. Although conversations and feelings have been recreated from scratch, the book nevertheless has an authentic feel to it and manages to dramatize the daily life of all those involved with empathy and insight. A good read.

I wasn't sure what kind of book I was getting into when reading this but I really enjoyed reading this. The plot is great and the characters are interesting themselves. It almost felt like a nonfiction book.

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.