A Girl And A River

I Cannot Undo What They Have Made Of Me. I Cannot Go Back And Smoothen Out The Wrinkled Brow Of My Childhood . . . There Are Things I Must Settle, Gaps I Must Fill. Both For Their Sake And Mine. It Is The 1930S And The Fire Of The Freedom Movement From Distant Bengal And Delhi Is Warming The Languid Bones Of The Small Town In Mysore, Where Kaveri And Setu Grow Up. Theirs Is A Liberal, Prosperous Household And The Family Takes Its Privileges For Granted. Mylaraiah, Their Father, Believes That They Are Twice Protected From Such Delusions As Swaraj Once By The British And Then By The Maharaja. While Setu Absorbs Their Father S Unquestioning Veneration Of The British, Kaveri, Profoundly Affected By Mahatma Gandhi S Visit To Their Town, Comes To Recognize Their Attempts To Be More English Than The English As Rather Shameful. In An Attempt To Follow Her Heart And Take Charge Of Her Own Future, Kaveri Defies Her Father And Participates In The Quit India March Organized By Shyam, The Hot-Headed Revolutionary She Is Attracted To. Angered And Jealous, And Loyal To His Father, Setu Is Forced Into Betraying His Sister. The Small Town Is Shaken Into Life Quite Brutally When It Faces A Police Firing For The First Time In Its History. But Kaveri Is Safe And Home, Or So Setu Thinks . . . Fifty Years Later, Setu S Daughter Tries To Unravel The Circumstances Of Her Uneasy Upbringing, Of The Grit-In-The-Eye Feeling To Her Childhood; Understand Her Cold Father, Her Self-Effacing Mother And Their Refusal To Talk About Their Past. Two Books And A Letter Found In A Tea Tin In The Attic Lead Her To Kaveri And It Is Kaveri, Whose Fate Remains Shrouded In Mystery, Who Has The Answer To Her Questions. But Even With All The Pieces Of The Jigsaw In Hand, The Picture Eludes Her. She Is Forced To Come To Terms With The Insidiousness Of Family Bonds As She Realizes That The Truth, If It At All Exists, Is Made Of Elisions And Imperfections.

A gritty tale of how far we’ll go to protect the ones we love for fans of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone from Gale Massey, a talented new name in crime fiction. Everyone says the Elders family are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts—a fact nineteen-year old Jamie Elders has been trying desperately to escape. She may have the natural talent of a poker savant, but her dreams of going pro and getting the hell out of the tiny town of Blind River, New York are going nowhere fast. Especially once she lands in a huge pile of debt to her uncle Loyal. At Loyal’s beck and call until her debt is repaid, Jamie can’t easily walk away—not with her younger brother Toby left at his mercy. So when Loyal demands Jamie’s help cleaning up a mess late one night, she has no choice but to agree. But disposing of a dead man and covering up his connection to the town’s most powerful judge goes beyond family duty. When it comes out that the victim was a beloved athlete and Loyal pins the murder on Toby, only Jamie can save him. But with a dogged detective on her trail and her own future at stake, she’ll have to decide: embrace her inner criminal, or defy it—and face the consequences.

Moments after she is born, Tessa Barcussy is branded as 'trouble'. On the same day, her father Freddie encounters a Romany Gypsy who makes a chilling prediction about Tessa's destiny. Freddie finds it so disturbing that he writes it down and hides it in a sealed envelope - never to be opened, he hopes. Yet the gypsy's words haunt him as he bonds with his new baby daughter. Hyper-sensitive and rebellious, Tessa grows up a misfit, difficult to handle and disruptive. Freddie and his wife Kate struggle to raise this challenging child and nurture her creative gifts. Tessa feels that her path to happiness is chequered, growing up in the shadow of her sister, golden-child Lucy, and hiding a dark secret from everyone? Will the words of the Romany Gypsy come true? Or will they empower Tessa to finally become the person she was born to be?

I cannot undo what they have made of me. I cannot go back and smoothen out the wrinkled brow of my childhood . . . there are things I must settle, gaps I must fill. Both for their sake and mine.' It is the 1930s and the fire of the freedom movement from distant Bengal and Delhi is warming the languid bones of the small town in Mysore, where Kaveri and Setu grow up. Theirs is a liberal, prosperous household and the family takes its privileges for granted. Mylaraiah, their father, believes that they are twice protected from such delusions as -swaraj'"once by the British and then by the Maharaja. While Setu absorbs their father's unquestioning veneration of the British, Kaveri, profoundly affected by Mahatma Gandhi's visit to their town, comes to recognize their attempts to be -more English than the English' as rather shameful. In an attempt to follow her heart and take charge of her own future, Kaveri defies her father and participates in the Quit India march organized by Shyam, the hot-headed revolutionary she is attracted to. Angered and jealous, and loyal to his father, Setu is forced into betraying his sister. The small town is shaken into life quite brutally when it faces a police firing for the first time in its history. But Kaveri is safe and home, or so Setu thinks . . . Fifty years later, Setu's daughter tries to unravel the circumstances of her uneasy upbringing, of the grit-in-the-eye feeling to her childhood; understand her cold father, her self-effacing mother and their refusal to talk about their past. Two books and a letter found in a tea tin in the attic lead her to Kaveri and it is Kaveri, whose fate remains shrouded in mystery, who has the answer to her questions. But even with all the pieces of the jigsaw in hand, the picture eludes her. She is forced to come to terms with the insidiousness of family bonds as she realizes that the truth, if it at all exists, is made of elisions and imperfections.

A river is a thread, embroidering our world. This non-fiction picture book brings attention to the rivers that stitch and thread our world together.

ABOUT GIRL BY THE RIVERLike a river runs from the highest sources, down mountainsides and through forests and cities all across the world, so a river runs through the lives of the women in this short story collection. As a silent witness, a soothing passers by or a roaring accomplice, the river flows through veils of time and great distances, playing a vital part in the lives of these young girls and women as they live through great obstacles and great losses, great accomplishments and great loves.

Brought up on her uncle's lowly tenant farm among the mixed farming and mining community of the wild Tavy Valley on Dartmoor, young Elizabeth Thornton yearns to train in medicine. But for a woman in mid-Victorian England, her ambitions will be impossible to fulfil. Besides, her uncle has other plans for her. Even when she appears to have escaped his clutches, a vengeful obsession from another source brings the past back to haunt her. Even the man she comes to love holds a dark, terrible secret, and in a heart-stopping drama, each of them is forced to confront a personal terror. 'Passionate Victorian saga of love, deceit and intrigue . . . Tania's story is one to inspire' Western Morning News 'As well as being a thumping good read for a wet afternoon, this romantic novel feels like a living history' Dorset Echo 'This is an emotional and lively saga. Not just an absorbing read, but also an insight into what life was like in a bustling Victorian port' South Wales Argos 'Fans of historical dramas in the classic style will love this powerful novel' Peterborough Evening Telegraph