Beetween Us, a River

Between Us, a River is a dual-timeline young adult novel about family myths, inherited silence, and the stories we tell to survive.

In the summer of 1994, Ruby, a lonely and  argumentative teenage girl is desperate to escape the big city. She travels with her mother to Woodrush, a small rural town where her family gathers to celebrate the life of her Uncle Neal. There, she is reunited with her cousin and best friend, JJ.

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The girls discover a stash of letters from 1971. They begin to unravel the year that reshaped their family forever. It was the year their grandparents died, when responsibility became a burden, love crossed dangerous lines, and silence became the best defence. As Ruby and JJ read on, their search for “dirt” on their parents turns into something far more unsettling: the realization that the adults they thought they knew, may have survived by rewriting the truth.

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Between Us, a River explores Queerness, grief, inherited trauma, and the cost of being the one who stays. It is a story about what flows between us when the truth can no longer be held back.

 

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