The Revolutionist Book Review

Two families escape the tyranny of their homelands, and their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

About The Revolutionist

Two different families escape from the political tyranny of their respective homelands, the Josephsons from Sweden and Matias and Kurt Bauman, brothers from Germany and Austria Hungary, with the aid of a Viennese opera diva, Sophie Augusta Rose, and Jean Guenoc, a former Jesuit priest, family friend and protector and partisan of the French underground. Their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

Ingrid and Olaf Josephson settle on a small wheat farm in North Central Minnesota to raise their children, Newt and Julie. Among the Jewish entrepreneurs forced to leave Germany and Austria-Hungary, Matias and Kurt Bauman re-establish their transportation company in Chicago, Illinois. In search of a secret list of insurgent social democrats, the bounty hunter assassin, Luther Baggot, tracks his victims to the American heartland. Following the murder of their mother and father, Newt, Julie, and their friends, Aaron and Beth Peet, hide from the killer in a Northern Minnesota logging camp. Believing the children have taken possession of the list, Luther tracks them down and they are forced to flee again, this time to Chicago where a different world opens up to them as they are thrust into the turmoil and violence of an urban society and economy careening into the new century.

My Thoughts

This is a fantastic, well written novel from start to finish, I could not put it down.

It starts off with the daring escape of two families from Sweden and Germany and Hungary. They are forced to escape and leave behind their world due to the political views and being supports of the socialism movement. The families escape to America and you would think that their nightmare is over but someone is determined to ensure that they will not escape. Luther, a hired bounty hunter, follows them to America and kills Ingrid and Olaf when they refuse to give him the secret list of social democrats.

This sets their children down a very unique and interesting past. With no parents and no one to protect them, they must seek out their own future – first in a lumber camp and then in Chicago. The children are exposed to the good and the bad of the world. You are never really to sure if the children have escaped the clutches of Luther.

This was an excellent, well written and planned out historical novel. He touches on some difficult topics but does so with fact and respect. It is a novel full of hope and loss that you will not want to put down. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Robert is published by Tell-Tale Publishing Group LLC / Wise Words Publishing under a multi-book contract. The author of four previous earlier novels, Robert infuses his books with unique dynamic stories and characters that portray social and cultural conflicts of their time. His career encompasses many years as a business consultant that have given him access to a wide range of organizations and an appreciation for people in all areas of society. His life experience is reflected in the literary quality of his work. Born and raised in the Middle-West, he has traveled throughout the United States and abroad.

Now retired, he resides with his wife in Southern California where he devotes full-time to writing. Robert is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Masters Degree in Communications at the University of California, Los Angeles where he received the Samuel Goldwyn and Donald Davis Literary Awards.