Shaken in the Water

Fiction. Women's Studies. 1903: a Mennonite woman gives birth to a daughter named Agnes. The child bears a birthmark known in Low German as Tieja Kjoaw, the Tiger's Scar. The mark portends greatness or tragedy. Agnes becomes the matriarch of a family struggling for greatness: her husband shaves his entire body to win God's favor; a tornado carries her daughter away on a clear winter day; convinced he is a modern Moses, her son frees a truckload of cattle; her granddaughter butchers a cat to save her marriage; a tiger residing in her daughter's backyard claims to be the love of Agnes' life.