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Where the Silver River Ends

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Lyrical realism meets family drama meets sparkling global folktale.

Joan, a half-Chinese English conversation teacher unmoored in Europe, flees Budapest for a fresh start. Stepping off the train in Bratislava, she meets Milan, a proud Roma teenager, and they strike up a friendship. Milan helps Joan settle into the city, and in turn, Joan introduces him to Adriana, who has traveled to lay the memory of her dead mother to rest. They form an unlikely trio, bound by love and luck into something like family.

At the crossroads of the power of youthful hope and the startling magic of coincidence, Where the Silver River Ends delves deep into mixed-race identity, systemic oppression, family reconciliation, and what happens when we gather the courage to slip out of the current and make our own way in the world.

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    • Booklist

      February 15, 2022
      Quon (Low, 2013) revisits characters from previous books in this thoughtful novel tackling the timeless question of whether fate is in our stars or ourselves. Joan, half-Chinese, half-English, feels ""stunted"" by a lonely childhood in Nova Scotia. At 35, she is adrift, teaching English in Budapest. The tenuous relationship that brought her there sours, so she flees to Bratislava, where the plights of a young Roma man, a local family on the brink of tragedy, and a visitor from home shake Joan's vision of herself. Will she continue to be ""swept along in the wake of so many other people's lives,"" or can she shape her own lot? From Joan's watchful, longing perspective, Quon captures emotional nuance. Poetic images enliven an otherwise straightforward narrative; for example, a dying woman is caught in ""the frugal chariot"" of her body. The Danube and the title's Silver River--the Milkyway in Chinese legend--serve as metaphors for Joan's existential journey. We leave Joan shaking the ""water [of the Danube] like dust from her feet,"" headed towards China and her grandfather's house.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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