Where the Lake Becomes the River: A Novel in Stories

Caught in the crossfires of Mississippi's racial tensions, Parrish McCollough is shadowed by secrets and haunted by spirits. She wrestles with "The Truth About Life After Death" after she sees her father's ghost sitting beside his casket. A gifted artist, she desperately hopes to attend college, but there's no money. She fears her mother will lapse into madness if she goes, and she keeps getting distracted by the wrong kind of man. When Civil Rights workers arrive in Mississippi, Parrish takes a risk that carries her onto the razor's edge between living and dying, learns the truth about the soul's survival...and finds an unexpected romance. Lush, vivid, and wildly entertaining, Where the Lake Becomes the River brings to life an unforgettable extended Southern family, along with its dreams, disappointments--and yes, even its beloved ghosts. Where the Lake Becomes the River won the Novello Literary Award, underwritten by Charles and Katherine Frazier's Cold Mountain Foundation. It was nominated for the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Prize, named a finalist for Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Awards, and Included in Publishers Weekly Fall Preview of books.