Thriving, book two of Corinne Jeffery's Understanding Ursula series, continues the storyof the challenges of the intriguing and contentious Werners, a family of German Lutheranhomesteaders on the Saskatchewan prairie. Become reacquainted with their dynamic livesas they try to keep pace with the flourishing new decade and later discover innovative waysto endure the hardships of the Great Depression.With the return of prosperity to the Canadian prairies, Gustav Werner resumes his insatiablequest to acquire more prime farmland. Still, no one is more surprised than he when hishand is forced and his future reshaped by increasing drama and secrets. He wonders whyhe is persistently entangled in compromising family relationships, and then tragedy, untilhe begins to doubt his faith. When Mother Nature, in which he has always found peaceand solace, too becomes his enemy-sending drought, grasshoppers, hail, and fierce windsthat lift the rich topsoil off his land-he starts to despair. Steadily, though, his sorrow anddespondency give way to a deepening awareness of his inner strengths and a heightening ofhis resolve to push onward for all those who count on him.