Set in a small town well below the Mason-Dixon line, River Jordan features an intricate web of neighbors who come to depend on one another like family. The youngest of the characters, Jordan, a girl with an adventurous imagination, is hungry for warmth and companionship, since she gets no more than scolding from her strict stepfather and mother. When Jordan’s step-grandmother, Miss Amylee, needs a live-in nurse, Peony, the family’s housekeeper and friend, offers the services of her sister, Pansy. Like a breath of fresh air, Pansy, newly saved and released from prison, soon finds her place in the tightly woven community. Pansy, Jordan, and Miss Amylee form an unlikely trio and find themselves enmeshed in the struggles and capers of their neighbors. And through small and large triumphs, each recovers a part of herself that was lost.
River Jordan is yet another beautifully told novel in which, as praised by USA Today, Trobaugh “streamlines her rich Southern style and creates a narrative as delicate as a line drawing.”
