It is 1883, and all of Klara Bozic s girlish dreams have come crashing down as she arrives in Thirsty, a gritty steel town carved into the slopes above the Monongahela River just outside of Pittsburgh. She has made a heartbreaking discovery. Her new husband Drago is as abusive as the father she left behind in Croatia.
In Kristin Bair O Keeffe s debut novel, Klara s life unfolds over forty years as she struggles to find her place in a new country where her survival depends on the friends who nurture her: gutsy, funny Katherine Zupanovic, who isn t afraid of Drago s fist; BenJo, the only...

At a time when nothing seems real,
it takes something truly unusual to put your life into focus.
When her beloved husband Jackson disappeared without a trace, popular novelist Sia Dane stopped writing, closed down her house, stuffed her heart into a cage, and started floating. It wasn't the normal response to heartache, but Sia rarely did things the normal way.
Exactly one year, one month, and six days after Jackson's disappearance, Sia discovers a mysterious man on the beach. He's mute, unresponsive, and looks as if he has just walked out of the sea. It's the sort of situation...