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Where the Lake Becomes the River Novello Festival Press Winner of the 2008 Novello Literary Award Growing up amidst Mississippi’s racial tensions, Parrish McCullough is shadowed by secrets and haunted by spirits. She wrestles with “The Truth About Life After Death,” after her father dies and she sees his ghost sitting beside his casket. Parrish is a gifted artist who 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 chance that sends her onto the razor’s edge between living and dying, learns of 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, its disappointments—and, yes, even its beloved ghosts.
Reviews “Homespun and profound, deadpan and poetic, hilarious and heartbreaking, Kate Betterton’s Where the Lake Becomes the River puts me in mind of Walker Percy, John Kennedy Toole and Harper Lee. Her voice, like her imagination, is inspired and authentic to its Deep-South core. A wonderful debut.” “Lush and tangled as a house covered in kudzu, Where the Lake Becomes the River is also as mysterious as creatures swimming unseen in a dark, cool, Southern pond. Ghosts, history (both in the making and already made), family myth, sweet tea and fried catfish all play an important part in the life of Parrish McCullough who lives in the Mississippi Delta where, as she says, ‘. . . eccentricity is prized like a fine wine.’ ” “Kate Betterton’s Where the Lake Becomes the River manages to be so many things at once: a Southern novel, a novel of the Far East, a tender exploration of the lives of girls and a wise, clear-eyed look at the lives lived between men and women. A book of great tenderness, filled with fine and delicately embroidered prose, it is also a book that is full of swagger and sass. Betterton has created a complex world that lives and breathes far beyond these pages.” “Where the Lake Becomes the River by Kate Betterton ought to come with a warning label: Put on your sweats, cancel all appointments and get comfortable, because once you start reading, you won’t want to stop until you’ve devoured the whole delectable, unforgettable thing. The voice of Parrish McCullough, this novel’s feisty, sensitive heroine, creates a current of gorgeous prose and irresistible storytelling that will carry you away.”
Links Visit Kate Betterton’s Web site at www.katebetterton.com.
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