River Road

Karen Osborn, New York Times notable author of Patchwork, returns with a heartrending drama of love, family, friendship, and the long aftermath of tragedy.

Searing and unforgettable, The River Road explores the rippling effects of tragedy on the lives of two families. David and Michael Sanderson are brothers, inseparable since childhood from each other and from their neighbor, Kay Richards, who has become a complicated young woman involved in a passionate and obsessive love affair with David. One spring night, while at home on a break from college, the threesome embark on a night of adventure and experimentation, driving recklessly through the forested roads of the Connecticut Valley. Stopping at the French King Bridge, David — full of youthful hubris and hallucinogens — dares to jump off, mistakenly believing that he'll be able to swim ashore. With this senseless plunge into the frigid, swollen river he sets into motion an inexorable chain of events that indelibly alters the lives of everyone involved: Michael, who watched from the car; Kay, who stood next to him and helped him climb onto the rail; and both sets of stunned parents who receive phone calls on that March night.

Told through the alternating voices of Kay, Michael, and David's father, Kevin, The River Road is a suspenseful narrative of the accusations, murder investigation, and tense courtroom battle that follows. Closely observed and psychologically penetrating, it brilliantly captures the individual anguish that is suffered in the wake of a life-shattering event, while also giving testament to the ways of survival and the endurance of love.

Author Biography:

Award-winning poet Karen Osborn grew up on Grand Island, New York, where she lived in a rural area along the banks of the Niagara River. She graduated from Hollins College, an all-women's college in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and went to graduate school in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Since then she has lived in both the southeast and New England and has taught literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities. She is the author of two previous novels, Patchwork, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Between Earth and Sky. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters.