2014 OMAHA READS SELECTION
2016 ONE BOOK, ONE NEBRASKA WINNER
Stuart, Nebraska is a long way from the battlefields of Western
Europe, but it is not immune to the horrors of the first Great War for
Peace. Like all communities, it has lost sons and daughters to the
fighting, with many more giving themselves over to the hatred only war
can engender.
Set in 1918 in the farm country at the heart of America, The Meaning of
Names is the story of an ordinary woman trying to raise a family during
extraordinary times. Estranged from her parents because she married
against their will, confronted with violence and prejudice against her
people, and caught up in the midst of the worst plague the world has
ever seen, Gerda Vogel, an American of German descent, must find the
strength to keep her family safe from the effects of a war that
threatens to consume the whole world.