'Her father said if she were to ever remove her hair cap, her head covering, and accepted a simple gold wedding band from her husband at the wedding that she could never darken the door of the community again.” Her father really put the kibosh on this relationship, and the whole thing just blew out of proportion and ended up with a bishop excommunicating her.' “Her father wanted her to marry the Mennonite farmer down the road, but she had met a ministerial student who was studying to be a pastor with a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and believed that God was calling her to marry him and be a pastor's wife. “It was a heartbreaking situation,” Lewis said. The stories are loosely based on the author's maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student and was shunned by her community as a result. The series, which comprises The Shunning, The Confession and The Reckoning, follows Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. She also regularly appears on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.īorn in the heart of Amish country - Lancaster, Pennsylvania - her first venture into adult fiction became an instant bestselling trilogy: The Heritage of Lancaster County. Lewis is one of the most successful authors in Christian fiction, with over 18 million books in print that have been published in 12 languages. “So many people would read my books and say, ‘You point me to the Word of God, I haven't been reading my Bible,’ or, from men, ‘You helped me know how to treat a woman in a better way.’ Things like that.” “I’ve continued to write books for so long because I feel called to make a difference somehow,” the 73-year-old author told The Christian Post, adding she has “drawers full” of letters from people who share how her books have impacted their lives. Novelist Beverly Lewis | Courtesy of Beverly Lewisįor beloved novelist Beverly Lewis, writing isn’t just about entertainment, it’s a form of ministry and a way to encourage readers to see God’s faithfulness in their personal stories.

Beverly lewis the shunning book series