WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE RIVER

A small town in northern Maine grieves the sudden death of a woman with postpartum depression.

Bowring’s second novel revisits the same town and characters from her debut, The Road to Dalton (2023). It’s five years later, 1995. “On the surface, nothing has really changed in Dalton since Bridget killed herself” at age 26, months after her first child, Sophie, was born. Below the surface, her death has transformed life for much of the town. As with her first novel, Bowring shifts perspective to a different character in each short chapter. It’s a large and lively cast. Many can hardly find time to grieve while parenting and working. Bridget’s husband, Nate, has quit the police force to work a mindless job in the Frazier lumber mill, owned by Bridget’s father. Bridget’s mother, Annette, is now an alcoholic and home-shopping-network addict. Old friends and lovers Bev (Nate’s mother) and Trudy, each married to a different man, are still together. Their love is tested when Trudy must care for her husband, Richard, after he has a heart attack. Bowring doesn’t create much tension in this novel, and there is no major twist or surprise. The focus is on the subtleties of her characters’ hearts and minds. At times, key character traits are repeated too often, as people are mired in comforting bad habits. But Bowring brilliantly evokes people’s inner lives through small, illuminating moments, not unlike Sherwood Anderson, and fills the novel with thoughtful and comic one-liners that ring true. Her love for these characters is apparent on every page, shining brightest in the tough but tender relationship Bev and Trudy share. “Bev can’t believe that tiny word—us—can contain so much. All their love and all their stories. All their hopes and all their sorrows.”

A moving portrait of the ways people survive palpable, harrowing grief.