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Title: Explora Books to Display The Saddlebag Preacher of Pike County at the London Book Fair

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 11th Feb 2026 - Set in southern Ohio in the 1850s, the book follows Rev. Jacob Chandler, a recent college graduate assigned to a rural preaching circuit near the farm where he grew up. His upbringing has left him unprepared for the lives he now encounters along the Ohio Canal—laborers, families, and travelers whose days are marked by loss, risk, and difficult decisions. Violet places Jacob among them without softening the realities of poverty, isolation, or social tension, allowing the setting to do much of the work.A central thread of the novel is Jacob’s involvement with a local stop on the Underground Railroad. Asked to minister to people seeking freedom, he becomes personally invested in their escape, even as the consequences threaten his role within the church. These scenes are handled with restraint, focusing less on spectacle and more on the steady pressure placed on a young minister whose beliefs are tested through action rather than sermon.Alongside these conflicts runs a restrained love story. Jacob’s relationship with a woman whose parents reject him for his lack of status introduces another kind of loss—one shaped by class and expectation. When she is sent away to prevent the match, Jacob must decide whether to wait in silence or act against convention. Violet treats this dilemma with patience, allowing uncertainty to linger rather than forcing a tidy resolution.The novel is informed by the author’s own family history. Inspired by stories passed down through generations and supported by archival research, Violet draws from real accounts of circuit rider preachers, their routes, and their daily records. Details about the structure of the Methodist circuits, the demands placed on ministers, and the communities that hosted t...

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