www.lisagurinebooks.com
Lisa Gurine Norby has been writing newsletters and professional documents for more than 20 years as part of her career. She comes from a long line of storytellers and has channeled her creative energy into re-telling and embellishing her family’s history for most of her life.
Lisa Gurine resides in Brooklyn Park, MN with her husband of more than 35 years. Her passion for cultural understanding drew her to become a volunteer with an international high school exchange program and the couple has hosted six students and temporarily hosted several others. Aside from her work with the exchange program, Lisa Gurine volunteers with her church and is an active member of the Night Writers writing group.
You will often find her biking, hiking, gardening, and simply enjoying nature with her black lab, Inka.
In Lisa Gurine’s first novel, her main character, Shadow, now an elderly woman, tells us the stories that have shaped her life. She begins as she made her way to the plains of South Dakota as a mute orphan near the turn of the 20th century and ends in a snowstorm in the mid-1960s. The stories will bring you to the point of tears one moment and have you nearly laughing out loud the next.
As a very young girl, Shadow lost her parents on the ship to America. She clung to a young couple who, because they had no alternative, brought her with them as they settled in the plains of South Dakota.
Shadow suffers from a condition called “Selective Mutism,” meaning that she is capable of talking but for whatever reason, chooses not to. She spends her life watching and listening to those around her and feels her existence in this world has not been important. It’s only when she writes about the people in her life that she discovers her own significance.
You never know where your smile will take you. Growing up in a small Brazilian town split by the equator, The Boy from The In Between didn’t either. Come along as he travels to The Land of Snow. Join him in discovering the lifetime bonds that can only happen when you are brave enough to experience the world. Being an exchange student isn’t easy but let’s face it: when the monkey talks, you must listen.