Before there was the Captain and Maria, there was Agatha.
Edelweiss: A Novel
By Autumn Raines Lockett
This is the story that came before the story we all know and love.
Even as a child, I remember watching The Sound of Music and wondering about the von Trapp children's mother. When you start looking for her within the familiar tale, her presence is unmistakable.
She's there, everywhere, always in shades of grief.
A mother mourned. A wife lost. A home empty of the love that nurtured it. A woman's story lost to time.
Who was this incredible woman that history forgot? I kept waiting for someone to tell her story. No one did.
Finally, I understood: Her story chose me. Now, I am writing the story that's lived in my heart for years.
The real Agathe von Trapp inspired this novel. Agatha von Linden is the woman I imagined her to be. Her story is one I've carried with me since 2011. Agatha has gone with me through Salzburg's cobblestone streets and up into the Alps.
Edelweiss: A Novel is the path where history and my imagination converge. Agatha’s story is not limited to the shadows or to grief. She was a woman whose love and spirit helped shape lives and legacies worth singing about.
And this story begins with…edelweiss.
You’re invited to come along as I write her back into the world.