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The River
Tricia Wastvedt. Black Cat: 2004 (paperback). ISBN: 0802170072. 346 pages.
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"In the summer of 1958 two children drown while playing in a leaky boat. As the years pass, the tragedy becomes part of the invisible fabric of village life...." So begins the story at the heart of this stunning debut novel from Tricia Wastvedt.
Now before you think to yourself, "It's summertime - I don't really feel like reading a depressing novel about death and dying," let us tell you something: The River may begin with a tragedy, but it doesn't stay there long. And the way Wastvedt writes this dramatic opening scene is simply masterful - beautiful despite its sadness, quiet and reverent, told from the children's point of view:
"Water seeped through the boards and slipped from side to side, folding and breaking in tiny waves. At first only an inch or two round their bare feet, then enough to reflect the clouds and the trees. Catherine liked the river inside the boat, and as it floated lower the wooden edges became an outline, the shape of a boat drawn on the green water....It was quiet under the trees. The water stretched out around them, smooth and peaceful. Far away on each side were the banks, and it was strange to see all the secret places under the edges of the river, the wet dark doorways of water creatures, their little harbours and jetties."
As the story quickly moves on, we get to know the English village of Cameldip and its people intimately, including Isabel, the mother of the drowned children, and Anna, a young pregnant woman who breezes through town and decides to stay. What happens next is a brilliant psychological portrait of these people as they deny - and in some cases relive - the ghost story that ties them all together. Like the gorgeous river on its cover, this novel has deep, turbulent waters running beneath its seemingly still surface. The River will keep you up way past your bedtime, and its breathtaking images, unanswered questions, and complex characters will give you lots to talk about with your book group. Sure to be a book group classic.
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