Tammy Greenwood's haunting novel is the beautifully evoked story of a
good man who has done a terrible thing, the events leading up to it, and
the demons born from it. It is at once a love story set against the
backdrop of the Vietnam War and civil rights movement and an examination
of the power of grief and the importance of forgiveness.
In Two Rivers, Vermont, Harper Montgomery is living a life overshadowed
by grief and guilt. Since the death of his wife Betsy, Harper has
narrowed his world to working at the local railroad and raising his
daughter Shelly the best way he knows how. Still wracked with sorrow
over the loss of his life-long love and plagued by his role in a brutal,
long-ago crime, he wants only to make amends for his past mistakes.
Then one fall day, a train derails in Two Rivers, and amid the wreckage
Harper finds an unexpected chance for atonement. One of the survivors, a
pregnant fifteen-year-old girl with mismatched eyes and skin the color
of blackberries, needs a place to stay. Though filled with misgivings,
Harper offers to take Maggie in. But it isn't long before he begins to
suspect that Maggie's appearance in Two Rivers is not the simple case of
happenstance it first appeared to be.
This novel is a sensitive and suspenseful portrayal of family and the
ties that bind.
--Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever and River of Heaven
Greenwood is a writer of subtle strength, evoking small-town life
beautifully while spreading out the map of Harper's life, finding light
in the darkest of stories.
--Publishers Weekly
