by Don Henwood
First published 2021
The muddy waters of the Mississippi carry both memory and fortune in this contemporary retelling. Our narrator finds himself caught between two worlds that Mark Twain once captured. He navigates the great river's changing currents while grappling with an impossible windfall that threatens to reshape his understanding of wealth and worth. The steamboats may be gone, but the river still holds its secrets. As he moves between the working-class reality of river life and the absurd luxury that sudden money brings, he discovers that some things about human nature never change. The Mississippi flows on, indifferent to the struggles of those who depend on its waters. This story explores what happens when ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances, and how the river that divides America also connects it.
Genres: fiction, american, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, ordinary-people-extraordinary-circumstances
Setting: Mississippi
Period: Contemporary
452 pages · Paperback · Independently published