What the River Keeps

Award-winning author of Sugar Birds and Leaning on Air and Christian Reformed Church member, Cheryl Grey Bostrom presents a stunning window into the history, Indigenous culture, and natural world of the Pacific Northwest while narrating a heart-wrenching story of the consequences of generational lies and strongholds and the transformative power of the Creator, who is always—always!—making things new.

Thirty-four-year-old Hildy Nybo and 41-year-old Luke Rimmer meet against the backdrop of preparations by the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, scientists, and engineers to rewild the Elwha River by destroying two century-old dams that had resulted in devastating loss of habitat for fish spawning grounds and life-altering consequences for the tribe’s livelihood and cultural life.

A successful biologist, Hildy is known for her powers of observation, meticulous recording abilities, and knowledge of fish habitats. Now she has been hired to lead teams of researchers to gather data about the Elwha River’s fish population before the dams’ demolition and afterward.

Luke, a carpenter and farmer, arrives to help his artist sister renovate a cabin into a pottery shop at the fishing resort where Hildy grew up and is now living while she heads up the research teams.

Competent on the job, privately Hildy is reclusive, suffers from severe anxiety, and is plagued by childhood trauma, namely, her mother’s accusations that Hildy always lost her possessions and never recalled reality as her mother perceived it. As a result, Hildy has hoarded her memories for decades, capturing each day’s events in journals and daily collecting a small item, like a stone, or feather, or a nest, to safeguard her recollections.

It's been five years since Luke’s life was upended in every way after a catastrophic event for which he felt crippling guilt. Now, he is slowly finding new hope as he embraces God’s grace and faithfulness.

Hildy cautiously begins to warm to Luke’s friendship and to trust him, sharing stories of her confused childhood memories, the disappearance of her loving dad, and her coping mechanisms. Though Luke begins to see a pattern, he waits patiently for Hildy to understand what might have happened to her. But when the dams come down and the river runs its rewilded course, the man-made lake by Hildy’s family’s resort empties and gives up its long-held secrets. As Hildy finally understands her history, her emotional dams are demolished and her heart’s river runs free.

What the River Keeps is a must-read, permeated by eschatological hope, the biblical promise that Jesus will return and make all things new. Grey Bostrom is a master storyteller—look for some surprising plot twists!—and a sensitive observer of history, human relationships, spiritual realities, and the natural world.

(Tyndale)