A recipient of the President’s Book Award, Widow of Sighing Pines is an authentically detailed, engagingly written novel by Jane Walker.  Set against the backdrop of the timber war in the piney woods area of Georgia during post-Reconstruction, the story is a compelling blend of history, intrigue, and romance.  Claiming to be the rightful owners of 300,000 acres of the finest longleaf yellow pine timber in the world, the timber magnate, William E. Dodge of New York, and his sons file ejection suits against the local people and throw them off their land - many a time at gunpoint.  The Southern squatters contend that the Dodges’ claims are questionable and their deeds invalid.  The locals hold legal titles to the land that has been in their families for over fifty years and for which they have been paying taxes.  Therefore, they retaliate against the land-grabbing Northerners by vandalizing their Yellow Pines Lumber company operations.  When her husband becomes one of the victims in the escalating land war between the two groups, and is murdered by the disgruntled squatters, the young Katharine Fremont is widowed.  Feeling utterly bereft and insecure, she decides to go back home to New York after tying up loose ends in Georgia, including selling her timber and house.  Having no business experience, she hires a Southern backwoodsman, Micah MacRae, to oversee the cutting, rafting, and marketing of her timber.  Micah, considered the best timber pilot on the rivers, is also the leader of the squatters.  Katharine is instantly drawn to her new overseer, but she tries her best to suppress her attraction to him.  While learning the truth about the land war and dealing with the “storm raging in her heart,” she faces several other problems.  She has to endure the unwelcome sexual advances of the arrogant, corrupt timber inspector, the terror rained by Ku Klux Klan on her property, and encounters with wild beasts.  After her hazardous rafting trip to the port city of Darien, during which Micah saves her life three times, Katharine finds herself wanting to succumb to his charms.  However, she is torn between conflicting feelings.  How can two people who are “poles apart,” and “on irreconcilably opposite sides in the land dispute,” overcome their differences and find true love.  Rich in meticulously researched details and masterfully portrayed characters, this spellbinding tale propels the reader through the almost five hundred pages of the hardback novel.  An outstanding novel, Widow of Sighing Pines marks the debut of an extraordinarily gifted author.