Award News
2019 Ben Franklin IBPA Awards
"The Witness Tree" won a silver medal this spring in the category of "Best New Voice: Fiction" in Chicago
2019 Midwest Book Awards
In the category of "Fiction--Literary/Contemporary/Historical", TWT was a 2019 MIPA silver medal finalist
2019 IPPY Awards
TWT won the category of "Best Regional Fiction, Midwest" and a gold medal in New York City
Praise for the Book
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LORNA LANDVIK, best-selling author of "Once in a Blue Moon Lodge" and ten other novels
Amy Pendino brings to life characters who matter to us as they take and lose chances, flee or stay, and dare to love despite the consequences. This is a deeply-satisfying, character-driven novel. It contains mystery, suspense and a long-held secret that, once revealed, offers hope and reconciliation to those who most deserve it.
LORI and JULIA, cohosts of MyTalk107.1 "Lori & Julia Show", broadcast from St. Paul, Minnesota
We love how "The Witness Tree" pairs strong, resilient women with unsolved mysteries... Lush descriptions of the rural landscapes and the characters' inner natures will capture the reader's thoughts and emotions.
BARBARA DEESE, author of No Ordinary Women Book Club mystery series
In this accomplished debut novel, Amy Pendino portrays two independent women born decades apart--strangers whose lives are bound together by a curse set in motion when a tree in rural Iowa bears silent witness to an unspeakable act. Over six decades pass before the curse finally exacts its retribution on this farming community, which is depicted with all of its small-mindedness and big-heartedness... The characters display a depth of honesty and a deep understanding of the human condition... "The Witness Tree" is a page-turner that is insightful, compelling and wonderfully well-written.
CHRISTINE HUSOM, author of the Winnebago County Mysteries and the Snow Globe Shop Mysteries
From the first paragraph I was captured by Amy Pendino's eloquent and descriptive writing style. The story follows two women, generations apart, who are compelled to leave their old lives behind for new adventures... Two thumbs up for Pendino's "The Witness Tree".
GREG DAHLAGER, Writer's Digest award-winner and contributing author of "Dark Side of the Loon..."
From its opening pages, "The Witness Tree" absorbs the reader in a gratifying tale of friendship, love and betrayal, uncovering long-buried truths and characters learning to be brave in a world with its own designs on their destiny.