This book is infused with the feeling of a day spent watching the river. It is tender, unhurried and gentle. Told by the part-woman/part-fish character of the river wife, this tale finds beauty everywhere. It is a story of love: the river wife’s love for family, for her world and for something strange that combines the two – Wilson James. He has come to her river to escape the loneliness and grief he feels after the death of his son.

At first, he is unaware of the river wife, but soon the boundaries of their two worlds begin to collapse and a deep love that is new to both of them emerges. The river wife marvels at the complexity of human emotions, charged as they are with the knowledge of their own brief lifespan. Wilson James is overawed with the life surrounding the river and the mystery of the woman who tends to it. And slowly their two lives become irrevocably intertwined.

The River Wife holds stories within stories and they are all woven together with a compassionate and unique hand.