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Linda C. Wisniewski has been writing ever since she won a loaf of bread in essay contest in parochial school. After several careers as a bureaucrat, a librarian and a reporter, she embraced the writer’s life. Linda volunteers as a docent at the historic home of author Pearl S. Buck. The author of Off Kilter, a memoir about growing up Polish American, Where the Stork Flies, a feminist time travel novel, and an essay collection, Old Women and Other Strangers, her work has been published in anthologies and journals both print and online. Linda’s Substack is called Writing and Walking, and her website is www.lindawis.com. She lives with her husband and two cats in Doylestown, PA.
Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Linda C. Wisniewski’s Time is a Pilgrim is set in 1830 Podhale, where Regina arrives in Biały Kot to help her daughter Marianna through childbirth as the halny, a destructive mountain wind, sweeps the villages. The baby, Halina, is born with a red mark across her cheek, and the reaction around the cottage makes Regina fear what village life may become for the child. After the same storm leaves Regina a widow, she searches for a way to protect Halina from being treated as cursed. Her quest reaches beyond her own century when Kasia, a descendant from modern America, enters Regina’s world. Guided toward Częstochowa, where pilgrims pray before the Black Madonna, Regina must decide what kind of help her granddaughter truly needs. The road puts old beliefs under pressure while Halina’s future remains uncertain.
Linda C. Wisniewski’s Time is a Pilgrim has the rare grace of a book that trusts wonder to arrive plainly. Wisniewski gives Regina, a widowed Polish grandmother in 1830, a time-travel story whose magic feels almost practical, as if shrines and bakery ovens have always known more than they admit. What matters is not the machinery, but Regina’s heart as she learns that love can mean rescue, return, defense, or surrender to another mother’s right to choose. The author is especially good at making the story feel totally physical: Regina carrying baby Halina, Regina standing beside scarred Zosia, and Philomena answering suspicion by sending aid first. The settings are visually described, from a masked Philadelphia hospital during COVID to a rain-soaked hayloft on the road to Jasna Góra. Readers who enjoy historical fiction that leans into faith, family, and time travel will love this book.
