Up the Hill to Home

A Novel

Fiction - Historical - Event/Era
488 Pages
Reviewed on 08/02/2015
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Author Biography

Jenny Yacovissi grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, just a bit farther up the hill from Washington, D.C. Her debut novel UP THE HILL TO HOME is a fictionalized account of her mother's family in Washington from the Civil War to the Great Depression. In addition to writing and reading historical and contemporary literary fiction, Jenny is a reviewer for Washington Independent Review of Books and the Historical Novels Review of the Historical Novel Society, and serves as president of the Anne Arundel chapter of the Maryland Writers’ Association. She owns a small project management and engineering consulting firm, and enjoys gardening and being on the water. Jenny lives with her husband Jim in Crownsville, Maryland. To learn more about the families in UP THE HILL TO HOMEand see photos and artifacts from their lives, visit http://www.jbyacovissi.com/about-the-book.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Tracy Slowiak for Readers' Favorite

I loved, loved, loved Jennifer Bort Yacovissi’s new book, Up the Hill to Home. This debut novel is so beautifully and lovingly written that if I didn’t know that it was based on the author’s ancestors, I would have assumed as such. Up the Hill to Home follows the life of Lillie Voith, beloved wife of Ferd, only daughter of Emma and Charley Beck, and mother of nine, soon to be ten. When Lillie discovers her pregnancy, she happily asks Ferd to bring her the treasured memory box, the sweet custom she follows when she is expecting each of her children. When Lillie takes a fall in the basement one day, then develops a worrying cough, everyone starts to fear that they may lose the glue that holds the family together.

Up the Hill to Home is, in this reviewer’s opinion, a masterpiece in the genre of historical fiction. Taking place in the late 1800s until the 1930s, the experiences, conversations and surroundings of the Beck and Voith families ring so truly of the time period that when I needed to take a break from reading, I’d have to shake my head a bit to clear my mind and bring myself back to the present moment. This book would appeal to any reader of authentic historical fiction, any lover of fiction in general, and any reader longing for a story that showcases true familial love and connectedness. I simply cannot recommend this book any more. Jennifer Bort Yacovissi’s Up the Hill to Home is a treasure, and one to which you should definitely treat yourself.