Water and Abandon (Flyover Fiction)

Its been a year since the body of seventeen-year-old Kelsey Little was found in the river outside Dark Vespers, Nebraska. Although the town may have reached an uneasy equilibrium, those who loved her most have certainly not: Javier Martinez, her troubled ex-boyfriend and the father of the child no one knew she was carrying; Sam and Hank, her parents, whose marriage is coming apart under the pressure of grief and not-knowing; and Ike Parrish, a reclusive eccentric whose clairvoyant “river spells” compel him to come forward with information about Kelseys disappearance and death.

A prismatic look at the impact of loss on individual lives, Water and Abandon tells the moving and paradoxical story of those brought together by the very thing that tears them apart. Haunted by Kelseys death, each struggles with his or her own demons of blame and guilt, despair and fury—until one, in a confusion of pain, grief, and unrequited love, decides to do something dire. As deeply felt as it is finely crafted, the novel confirms Robert Vivians place among the most interesting fiction writers of our day.

"A meditation on the innumerable manifestations of loss, Vivian's melodramatic new novel (after The Mover of Bones) opens on Dark Vespers, Neb., one year after the death of 17-year-old Kelsey Little. Since her body was recovered from the Sicangu River, Kelsey's loved ones have not moved far from the grief that has become their burden. Her parents, Hank and Sam, suffer privately, as does her older boyfriend, Javier, who Hank never approved of; the loss has only deepened their anger against each other, and the questions that surround Kelsey's disappearance three weeks before her death torture everyone. Why did a beautiful, well-adjusted girl run away and hide her pregnancy, even from Javier? Only Ike Parrish, a possibly crazy Korean War vet who communes with the Sicangu claims to know what happened to Kelsey through clairvoyant 'river spells.' Slowly, Kelsey's last days are revealed as each character's pain interlocks and catalyzes the other in a series of strange occurrences that lead them away from and back to Kelsey's death and the Sicangu. Sentimentality and an artificial folksiness bury the rare moments of beauty in this novel. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.