SYCAMORE SONG

Sycamore Song is about a young Malawian woman, Chimwala, who loses her father at the age of 15 and is given the charge of protecting and providing for her impoverished family. Though in love with her childhood neighbor, Chimwala is forced to marry into a wealthy family to provide for her mother and younger sister. This obligation takes her on a series of dramatic twists involving the attempted murder of her sister, a deceased husband, the escape from his abusive family, and a trek across Malawi and into Tanzania. Now a young woman and a mother of three, Chimwala has to figure out a plan to make it with the few dollars she secretly tucked away while she was married. In need of money and an opportunity, Chimwala takes a job in America. What she thought would be a wonderful opportunity to provide for her family turns out to be a web of trafficking horrors, yet the resilient Chimwala escapes with determination to make it back to Tanzania where she left her three kids. Though headstrong, she's a woman without identification in a Western world where she knows no one. Her hard-wearing, resistant spirit is why her father once compared her to a sycamore, and now she'll need that fortitude to get back home. Favor shines upon her, and she meets several American strangers who led her to a group of women with whom she has much in common. Chimwala thinks irony is fate taking her to a bigger cause than her original mission. Through facing her fears and challenging her God, Chimwala discovers that her hardships were only stepping stones for her life's true legacy. Her sacrifices were all efforts to protect her family, but at 25 years of age, a very wise Chimwala uncovers that her safeguarding journey is just beginning. Sycamore Song follows Chimwala's arduous journey as she discovers she's always given the strength to prevail when following a destiny greater than her desire. It will take readers on an impassioned, life-changing pilgrimage as they question how much the human spirit can take before breaking and how much sacrifice and satisfaction comes with fulfilling a destiny.