TIME IS A RIVER July 2008
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After losing her job and her self-confidence, Mia Landan, a thirtysomething breast cancer survivor from Charleston, SC, finds her way to Casting for Recovery, a North Carolina based organization run by fishing guide Belle Carson. Mia also loses her husband when she finds him casting about with another woman, and she seeks refuge in Belle's old family cabin. Along with the rigors of breast cancer treatment, readers learn about the ancient art of fly-fishing and how its principles can help replenish the soul and bring nature and a person's place in it into relief. Mia's time in the cabin makes her look at her damaged body as a symbol of her self-worth, not merely as a sign of weakness and failure. She even manages to flirt and eventually find love with a fellow fly-fisher. But this latest title from Monroe (Swimming Lessons) is also a mystery, as Mia tries to piece together the life of Kate Watkins, Belle's late grandmother and a well-known fly-fisher, who lived in the cabin many years before. The truth is unearthed by Mia and a group of strong local women who decide that men need not have the last word, even when the conversation is about fishing.
This fascinating, nicely wrought novel will be popular in public libraries even where readers don't know a brook trout from a can of sardines.
Highly recommended.