Is faith strong enough to weather the coming storm?
South Russia, 1914. The world is at war and revolution threatens. Against this backdrop of fear and danger, three young people search for hope and love.
Katarina Hildebrandt’s tranquil life on her family’s Crimean estate is about to change. Tutor Johann Sudermann has found true faith, but it will turn his life upside-down. And Paul Gregorovich Tekanin, working for the revolution in St. Petersburg, finds it will demand his soul as well as his wit and strength.
Will they find faith to weather the coming storm?
Calm Before the Storm is a look into the lives of Mennonites in South Russia between the years 1914 and the beginning of WWI to the emigration of some 20,000 Mennonites to North America circa 1924. The story views the changing religious and political climate through the eyes of a middle-class teacher (Johann Sudermann), an upper-class young woman (Katarina Hildebrandt), and a Russian peasant (Paul Gregorovich Tekanin) as their lives intertwine and separate. The first of a series of three novels.