Reviews

The News-Herald, Durham, NC

Author Mary Alice Monroe is known for teaching as well as storytelling. Her novel "Sweetgrass" taught as much about the grass used in the generations-old trade of making baskets in South Carolina as it did the story of the characters. In "The Beach House" and "Swimming Lessons," sea turtles were the nature topic interwoven with the plots. Monroe lives on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina and has also previously stopped in Raleigh on a book tour. Much of her work is set in the South Carolina Lowcountry. In "Time is a River," Monroe heads northwest from her usual South Carolina setting for the western mountains of North Carolina outside Asheville. This time the naturalist in every reader learns a little bit about fly fishing.
Monroe interweaves the stories of Mia Landan and the long-dead woman who once lived in the riverside cabin where Mia spends the summer. Mia first visits the small town of Watkins Mill as part of a breast cancer survivor fishing group, then heads home to Charleston, S.C. When she discovers her marriage is over, she returns to the mountains to seek refuge. Mia's fishing instructor offers up a dusty, unused family cabin in the mountains. Mia finds much more than she expects, and learns about herself through the history she unravels about the cabin's former owner Kate Watkins. Although instructed not to stir up the mud of the past, Mia can't stop herself from wanting to learn more about the intriguing Kate. In doing so, she befriends the local townspeople, does some sleuthing, explores her own internal struggles and meets another visitor who helps her turn fly fishing from a hobby to something more.
Evidence of the author's craft shows in Monroe's ability to draw readers into an activity they might otherwise have little interest or previous knowledge of, like fly fishing. Monroe has said that she likes to draw parallels between nature and human nature. As Mia becomes more comfortable with herself, her fishing improves. The lessons she learns about herself -- and Kate -- last more than one lifetime.

 "Time is a River" is one of Monroe's best novels to date and is likely to exceed Monroe's fans' expectations.

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Library Journal

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 sould 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 Wakins, 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 know a brook trout from a can of sardines. Highly recommended.

Powell's Books Review

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

With a strong, warm voice that brings the South to life, New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe writes richly textured stories that intimately portray the complex and emotional relationships we share with families, friends, and the natural world. "Every book that Mary Alice Monroe has written has felt like a homecoming to me," writes Pat Conroy, bestselling author of The Prince of Tides.

Time Is a River is an insightful novel that will sweep readers away to the seductive southern landscape, joining books by authors such as Anne Rivers Siddons and Sue Monk Kidd.

Recovering from breast cancer and reeling from her husband's infidelity, Mia Landan flees her Charleston home to heal in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. She seeks refuge in a neglected fishing cabin belonging to her fly-fishing instructor, Belle Carson.

Belle recently inherited the cabin, which once belonged to a grandmother she never knew - the legendary fly fisher and journalist of the 1920s, Kate Watkins, whose life fell into ruins after she was accused of murdering her lover. Her fortune lost in the stock market crash and her reputation destroyed, Kate slipped into seclusion in the remote cabin. After her death the fishing cabin remained locked and abandoned for decades. Little does Belle know that by opening the cabin doors to Mia for a summer's sanctuary, she will open again the scandal that plagued Belle's family for generations.

From her first step inside the dusty cabin, Mia is fascinated by the traces of Kate's mysterious story left behind in the eccentric furnishings of the cabin. And though Belle, ashamed of the tabloid scandal that tortured her mother, warns Mia not to stir the mud, Mia is compelled to find out more about Kate...especially when she discovers Kate's journal.

The inspiring words of the remarkable woman echo across the years. Mia has been learning to fly-fish, and Kate's wise words comparing life to a river resonate deeply. She begins a quest to uncover the truth behind the lies. As she searches newspaper archives and listens to the colorful memories of the local small-town residents, the story of a proud, fiercely independent woman emerges. Mia feels a strange kinship with the woman who, like her, suffered fears, betrayal, the death of loved ones, and a fall from grace - yet found strength, compassion and, ultimately, forgiveness in her isolation. A story timeless in its appeal emerges, with a power that reopens old wounds, but also brings a transforming healing for Mia, for Kate's descendants, and for all those in Mia's new community.

Review:

"[An] exquisite, many-layered novel." - Booklist

Tattered Cover Book Store
Denver, CO
Jackie Blem

This is a soothing and rare treasure of a book. Monroe has really outdone herself this time with the story of breast cancer survivor Mia Landan. After a year of surgeries, radical chemo and radiation, Mia is a ghost of who she once was--a socially polished public relations guru married to an equally driven and sophisticated lawyer. Mia's sister sends her on a 3 day weekend with Casting For Recovery (a real and very amazing group, by the way), a group of survivors who bond and heal, physically and emotionally, through fly fishing. Energized from the experience, she comes home to find her husband in bed with another woman. She blindly races back to the mountains and into the arms of Belle Carson, the fishing guide and infinitely kind hearted woman.

Belle owns a dilapidated cabin that she "rents" to Mia for the summer--it's Mia's job to fix the place up so that Belle can rent it out to fisherfolk come fall. But the cabin has a mysterious past that Mia gets completely obsessed with, involving her in the life, present and past, of small town Watkins Cove and the characters that live there. The mystery, the river, the fish, and the friendships bring Mia back to the land of the living and heal more than one person.

Told partly in narrative and partly through well researched historical diaries and letters, this is a very powerful story of forgiveness, redemption and new birth. Vitality flows through this book just a surely as the river flows next to the cabin. Any woman who believes--or least longs TO believe--in second chances should read this book.

The Norman Report -

Time Is A River by Mary Alice Monroe

It is not often that I read a book that affects me as much as Time Is A River by Mary Alice Monroe. This is the story of a breast cancer survivor and how she copes with her loss as well as a story of fly fishing. How do they fit together? They just do in an amazing way. Mia Landon is offered the use of a cabin near Ashville, North Carolina by a very close friend. Mia wants to use the cabin to help her recuperate from her surgery and recover her mental state. Mia finds her husband in bed with someone else after the surgery and her mind is in bad shape. Will divorce follow? The cabin is in bad shape so Mia cleans it up and discovers some old journals of the owner, Kate Watkins, grandmother of the woman who loaned her the cabin. There is a great scandal about Kate Watkins. Did she kill her lover? Mia becomes very engrossed with the story and chases the story to the end. While all this is going on, Mia,a new fly fisherman, learns that Kate Watkins was a famous fly fisherman. Mia, with the help of others, learns to become a fantastic fly fisherman. The stories intertwine with the beautiful scenery of the land and the wonderful people of Watkins Glenn, N.C. I just loved this book and I am sure it will be a best seller.

Laura Hansen
Bookin' It - We're IndieBound!
104B Second Street SE
Little Falls, MN 56345

What a pleasant surprise this book was! The more I read the more I was hooked by the both the story and the setting. Monroe's depiction of a woman coming to terms with life after breast cancer and her husband's betrayal is thoughtfully done and worthy in itself, but the setting and backstory are what really carry the day for me. I love the mountain setting, the cabin by the river with its unusual contents, and the wonderful writing about a mysterious woman who was a master fly-fisher in the 20's. Monroe successfully and subtlety weaves the lessons of fly-fishing into Mia's story of recovery. A thoroughly restorative book.

Jean Lewis
Barnes & Noble, Estero, FL

I received an advance of TIME IS A RIVER and loved, loved, loved it. This book will sell like crazy in our market. I will place it on the front of our octagon by the music entrance and it will be easy to hand sell. I am making sure as many of our book sellers as possible read it. 

Beth Carpenter
The Country Bookshop
Southern Pines, NC

I just finished Time is a River by Mary Alice Monroe.  I have read almost all of her books and they are a joy to read.  This one is no exception.  And how nice to have it set in the mountains of North Carolina!  I believe we'll sell many copies of this book.

Patricia Worth
River Reader Books
Lexington, MO

I loved reading the arc of TIME IS A RIVER by Mary Alice Monroe. Her books are wonderful to curl up with and read (and re-read) in one weekend. This newest book is no exception. Mia Landon is such a sympathetic character and one we are able to relate to as she grows past her problems and re-connects with life. The journal makes it possible for the reader to also become acquainted with another wonderful character and the connection between the two women and the love of fishing makes this a great book for our summer readers.