The River Within
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“Powell has not written a pale imitation of The Crown or Downton Abbey . . . it’s a fresh look at the pressures our caste systems place upon all of us.” —Los Angeles Times
It is the summer of 1955. The body of Danny Masters is found by three of his friends in the river that runs through Starome, a village on the Richmond estate in North Yorkshire.
Alexander, one of the three friends that found Danny and the sole heir to Richmond Hall, has always been unpredictable but lately he has grown elusive, his behavior becoming increasingly erratic. His mother, Lady Venetia Richmond, is newly widowed and too busy trying to keep the sprawling family estate together to worry about Alexander, though she could use his help.
A second friend, Lennie Fairweather, “child of nature” and daughter of the late Sir Angus Richmond’s private secretary, has other things on her mind too. In love with Alexander, she longs to escape life with her over-protective father and domineering brother, Tom, who was also there when Danny’s body was discovered.
In the weeks that follow the tragic drowning, the river begins to give up its secrets. As the circumstances surrounding Danny’s death emerge, other stories surface that threaten to disrupt everybody’s plans and to destroy an entire way of life.
“[Powell’s] novel about love, class, and secrecy in 1950s England reads as if it were written in the era the characters inhabit, her style and tone reminiscent of an earlier generation of reticent yet emotionally brutal writers like Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene. A mesmerizing escape.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Evocative and engrossing.” —Heat Magazine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powell's grim, moody debut investigates the death by drowning of a working-class young man in 1950s Yorkshire. The body of Danny Masters, who faced conscription into the armed forces, is discovered in the River Wharfe. First to see him is Lennie Fairweather, a recent high school graduate living with her father in the Gatekeeper's Cottage of Richmond Hall. Danny had been infatuated with Lennie, but she has eyes for Richmond heir Alexander, who is given to addressing her with questions such as, "Why are you dressed like such a whore?" Alexander has an equally fraught relationship with his recently widowed mother, Venetia, who he believes is romantically entangled with Alexander's uncle James. As the various characters debate whether Danny died by suicide or accident, the details gradually trickle out for the reader. Heavy-handed references to Hamlet abound ("Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia," reads the epigraph), and by the time the cause of Danny's death has been revealed, several other characters end up dead as well. Powell has a keen understanding of the restrictions imposed by class and gender in postwar England, and the narrative really moves, though the love triangle plot's conundrums are dealt with a bit too conveniently. Still, Powell's sharp insights keep this afloat.
