Imagine this:
Catastrophic hurricanes have been hitting the Gulf Coast for years. The government has decided to draw a new border on the United States. Anyone who lives below the line will no longer be protected by the government or law enforcement.
What would you do? Would you leave the only home you have ever known? Or stay behind and try to weather the storm?
That is exactly the decision that has to be made in Michael Farris Smith's new novel,
Rivers. Cohen can't imagine leaving the home her and his wife shared for so many years. But once Cohen's home is ransacked, he must make the decision: stay or go? Before he can leave, he is kidnapped by Aggie who is holding other women and children captive. Cohen manages to escape Aggie and release the people he holds captive. Now, he has another decision to make: make a new home with the people he now leads or try to get them all safely to The Line?
Dr. Jacob Thacker is on probation for Xanax abuse and
temporarily working PR for the medical school. He is the first one contacted
when a construction team uncovers a large number of human bones in the basement
of the administration building. There have been rumors for years about the
existence of slave remains in that building and now it may have just been
confirmed. With this, we are taken back to the years working up to the Civil
War where we meet Dr. Johnston and the college’s slave, Nemo. Between the two
stories, both past and present, we are able to see one college’s history and
the extent they once went to teach and the extent they may go to now to cover
up the past. Or will they?