Novels

A Woman of some importance

Set in 1900, this coming-of-age novel follows the cross-country journey of Birdie Sondergaard, daughter of Danish immigrants, as she transforms from pining girl to determined woman and discovers her own power in Gilded Age society. Through her, readers experience the contradictions and complexity of turn-of-the-century America: the industrial revolution, the enormous wealth of the robber barons, and the birth of the suffragette movement. A tale of hope, heartache, wit and strength, the novel follows the nascent journey of feminism itself.

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A Woman of Some Importance Diane Sorensen ISBN: 9798234170804 (trade paperback) ISBN: 9798182784061 (e-pub) Publish date: 9/20/26

Early reviews

“History comes alive in this tale of human drama and achievement. Sorensen evokes the midwestern landscape and the crowded city alike with stark lyricism. Her language is gorgeous and her dialog crackles with the authentic voices of prairie immigrants, millionaire socialites, and the tenement dwellers of the teeming city.” 

--Philip Gerard professor of creative writing, author of four novels and six books of nonfiction, and recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature

“A young girl's desire to escape the hardscrabble tedium of the Nebraska plains plays out in unexpected ways in this beautifully told story of discovery and heartbreak.”

--Jill Kelly, author of When Your Mother Doesn't and Apprenticed to the Mystical 

“A love letter to the American heartland and the Danish immigrants who cultivated Nebraska's Black Hills Basin in the late 1800s. Birdie Sondergaard is born amidst a windstorm typical of this harsh landscape, a wind that "shaped the very souls of the homesteaders.” Through her, readers experience the contradictions and complexity of turn-of-the-century America: the industrial revolution, the enormous wealth of the robber barons, and the birth of the suffragette movement. Sorensen delivers an exquisitely complex protagonist, poised—just as America—on the brink of monumental change.” 

--Dina Greenberg, Fulbright Scholar and author of Nermina’s Chance