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Sometimes, in order to move forward, we have to return to where --- and who --- we were in the past. Unfortunately for Meridy Dresden, this means excavating painful wounds from her childhood that she would just as soon leave buried back on the shores of the South Carolina Low Country. But if she has any chance of reclaiming the vibrant, free-spirited soul she once was and salvaging her twenty-year marriage that's teetering on unstable ground, she must come to terms with an insidious secret coiled so deeply within her that it's strangling her ability to breathe.

The trouble is, she'd almost forgotten what it felt like to breathe. Ever since college, she'd forgotten a lot of things about the Meridy of old, a girl who never met a dare she didn't take and whose unbridled passion for life often landed her in hot water with her restrained, Southern-mannered mother. But one terrible instant on the night of her high school graduation changed all of that when a tragic fire took away the love of her life, an event from which she never recovered.

Since then, Meridy had buried that night inside her and built a life centered on responsibility, control and perfection, first by becoming an honor roll student and class president at college, then by marrying the best man on campus and becoming a supportive wife and mother while her husband built his reputation as a successful lawyer. Now with her son away at college, her husband increasingly embroiled in a career-making case, and the painful aftermath of her best friend's collapsed marriage staring her in the face, she begins to question the precarious foundation upon which her "perfect" life was built.

With her motives unclear to even herself, she returns home to Seaboro, SC, under the pretense of collecting information about local Gullah legends for a school curriculum. The Gullah, slave descendants who'd maintained their original dialect and traditions into the present day, kept their culture alive through people like her family's wise old former housekeeper, Tulu. Aided by Tulu's special brand of Gullah wisdom, Meridy embarks on a painful journey of self-discovery leading her to the stark realization that she'd become an impostor in her own life --- hijacked by the secrets of her past so that she couldn't give herself over to the present.

In her fear over ruining her family's reputation and then subsequently over losing the respect of her husband and son, she'd let someone else shoulder all the responsibility for what had happened on that fateful night long ago. But as the Gullah proverb goes, "No matter how you try to cover up the smoke, it must come out," and Meridy realizes she must face judgment and risk everything she holds dear by acknowledging her own role in the tragic events. By finally giving herself over to honesty --- both in her heart and in her actions --- she learns how to live again.

Meridy's struggle to let go of perfection is one that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt pressured to keep up appearances and not let the cracks show through the facade. Her story is also a powerful reminder of what's really important in life: maintaining honest relationships and being true to ourselves.

Providing a compelling window into the soul, WHERE THE RIVER RUNS portrays with vivid intensity one woman's road to rebirth. Author Patti Callahan Henry proves equally as skilled with descriptive imagery as she is with decoding matters of the heart, evoking the hauntingly atmospheric backdrop of the lush South Carolina Low Country so viscerally that its sweeping sea vistas, meandering inland rivers, and enchanting Gullah culture become characters in and of themselves. With enormous grace and candor, the novel manages to transport, entertain and enlighten, showing us that no matter how far away we may have wandered, it's always possible to get back home.

   --- Reviewed by Joni Rendon

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