Arriving: 1909-1919 (Understanding Ursula)

Corinne Jeffery’s Canadian historical fiction trilogy, Understanding Ursula, vividly recreates the pioneer world of the Canadian prairies with a multitude of memorable characters. You’ll lose yourself between the pages as you watch them struggle to survive and flourish, always at the mercy of Mother Nature and the ever-changing seasons on the unfettered plains.

On July 1, 1909, the day after his eighteenth birthday, Gustav Werner takes the inaugural ride on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway between Melville and Regina, to apply for a homestead grant at the Dominion Lands Office. He is eager to become the most thriving homesteader in the townships of Neudorf and Lemberg, Saskatchewan, set aside for Gustav’s people, the German Lutherans, by Sir Clifford Sifton in Canada’s “Last Best West” land deal. What he doesn’t realize is that beyond becoming a man and a landowner, life as he knows it is about to crumble from his grasp. Family drama and conflict plague Gustav as he learns English—the language that sparks hatred in his staunchly traditional father, Christian—and discovers that his parents have arranged his marriage to sixteen-year-old Amelia Schweitzer.

“A rare, immediately immersive experience in literature.”
Scott Hayes, journalist, St. Albert Gazette

“we return to tales of arrival for good reason: reading about these risk-takers, making this country their own, is always moving. Corinne Jeffery is a very fine storyteller.”
Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal columnist, screenwriter, and award-winning, best-selling author of The Garneau Block and Toby: A Man

"Who would've thought I'd learn so much about humanity through a sweet little prairie fiction book? Fantastic first novel, Corinne. I can't wait to read what happens next to these colourful characters that have crept under my skin."
Steve Erwin, best-selling co-author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (#1 Amazon, #4 New York Times)

"I can readily see this on screen!"
Leon Logothetis, reality TV show producer and author, Amazing Adventures of a Nobody

"Arriving is like a raw and racy Little House on the Prairie that throws the reader right back in time. Can't wait to read the sequel!"
Marla Martenson, author, Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker