Beautiful debut novel that surprises you with the clarity of the writing and the character development. Really captures the post-Depression struggles for young people to get ahead in the world and the disappointments that become commonplace in a struggling economy. The story focuses on a WPA dam project in small town Tennessee and the introduction of electricity was such a foreign concept to the locals. The intersecting lives of the townspeople and federal workers plays against the struggles at the dam project for materials and job prospects. ( )

It is 1937 in rural Tennessee, and work is feverishly being done a a big, new dam. When finished these people in rural America will have electricity. The wonder of it, almost seemed an impossible dream. The author does a terrific job detailing both the hopes and struggle of both the people and the monumental struggle it takes to get everything ready.

Nathan is a young engineer, working on the project, but there is much in his life he needs to hide, including his real identity. Clare, mother of two, has left her husband with no intention of returning. Some things can't be forgiven. Now she must find a way to support herself and her children.

Beautifully written, the prose is outstanding in what I believe is a debit. It is another quieter novel, with the most attention being paid to the two main characters, the building of the dam, and the setting. The rural atmosphere is done perfectly, the first viewing of a news feel against a building wall, all the town turning out for the bug event. Dog fights, though this is a short lived section, boarding house communal living, all touches that bring this time period to life.

Nathan and Clare both change during the story, and I enjoyed watching the realizations of what they must do come to them. I liked Nathan right from the beginning, for Clare it took me a little longer.

"As the insects took up their song once again, a lone duck flew over, headed south towards the river. In the late day light Frietag could almost count the feathers on each beating wing. He watched it go.

"But what would remain with the boy as he aged into manhood, what he would carry with him to years before he fully understood it's import, was the realization that hope had been repaid for it's effort, which all too often, he would learn, is miracle enough."

ARC from Edelweiss ( )