A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows: An Outlander Novella by Diana Gabaldon

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

Available for the first time as an exclusive eBook in this original Outlander novella, Diana Gabaldon reveals what really happened to Roger MacKenzie Wakefield’s parents. Orphaned during World War II, Roger believed that his mother died during the London Blitz, and that his father, an RAF pilot, was killed in combat. But in An Echo in the Bone, Roger discovers that this may not be the whole story. Now, in “A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows,” readers finally learn the truth.

My thoughts:
I preordered this book and read it pretty soon after it was released, I am just behind on actually reviewing things.  I guess I need to work on my time management skills a bit more.  I enjoyed this novella and I found myself wishing it were a longer and that there might have been a few more details.  Every time I read one of Gabaldon's books I also wish I could carve out the time to go back to the beginning of the Outlander series and reread them all in order.  I have done it before, but that was before i had children and had more reading time.  I did attempt to do my rereading earlier this year, but I only made it through Outlander.  I still have her last two books partially finished because I was going to do the rereading and was waiting to go back to them when I got to them in order.

I never thought too much about Roger's parents or about the hypothesis that being able to travel through the stones could be a genetic trait and that therefore Roger had to have gotten it from someone.  It was also interesting to see that Claire's first husband knew Roger's father.  In our heads we know what a small world it is, how we cross paths with so many people in any given day and that, in doing so, we make all sorts of connections, both small and large.  So just as Claire's life has crossed Roger's when he was a child in Reverend Wakefield's house after he was orphaned and then again with her daughter when she decides to travel back to Jamie and then again when he arrives in the past searching for Brianna, Roger's life has also crossed hers indirectly through his father and Frank Randall, her husband in the early 1900's.  If two lives can cross so many times both in the present and in the past, imagine how many times many of ours are crossing now just in one regular lifetime?

I like how Gabaldon gives us this sideways glimpse into Roger's parents and how they really lived and died.  I would have loved more details about exactly when his father traveled to, but it was a great story to read while waiting for the next book in the series.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9780345545374
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 12/3/2012
• Sold by: Random House
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 59