Staff Pick
Inspired by the life of Niagara Falls's famed "riverman," William "Red" Hill, The Day the Falls Stood Still is set during the early days of hydro-electric power. When the boss's daughter falls for the "riverman," class lines and propriety fall away. This is a great love story that shows how tragedy can shape, though not destroy, a family. Niagara Falls is a character in its own right in this fascinating historical novel. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating—and harboring a secret.
The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him—against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides, and he has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future.
Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating novel.
Review
"As much a love story between author and river as between star-crossed central characters." ---USA Today
Synopsis
In the tradition of City of Light and Fortune's Rocks comes a stunning novel of one family's struggle, set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls.
About the Author
Cathy Marie Buchanan was born and raised in Niagara Falls and lives in Toronto. Her fiction has appeared in some of Canada's premier journals, including the Antigonish Review, the Dalhousie Review, Descant, and the New Quarterly. She is the recipient of grants from both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Karen White has been narrating and directing audiobooks for more than a dozen years and has well over one hundred books to her credit. Honored to be included among AudioFile's Best Voices 2010 and 2011, she is also an Audie Award finalist and Best Audiobook of the Year winner and has earned multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards for narration and direction.Publishers Weekly says of Karen's narration of Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, "Karen White delivers a stunning reading, her character interpretations are confident and well-rounded, and she forges a strong bond with the audience."Speaking of Audiobooks says, "Karen is one of my auto-buy narrators-if I think a book may interest me, her narration will sway me to give it a try."