Two Rivers

By T. Greenwood

T. Greenwood's new novel is a powerful, haunting tale of enduring love and destructive secrets...
In Two Rivers, Vermont, Harper Montgomery is living a life overshadowed by grief and guilt. Since the death of his wife twelve years earlier, Harper has narrowed his world to working at the local railroad and raising his daughter the best way he knows how. Still wracked with sorrow over the loss of his life-long love and plagued by his role in a brutal crime, he searches for absolution.
Then one fall day, a train derails in Two Rivers. One of the survivors, a pregnant fifteen-year-old girl with mismatched eyes and skin the colour of blackberries, needs a place to stay. Though filled with misgivings, Harper offers to take Maggie in; a chance of atonement.
It isn't long, however, before he begins to suspect that Maggie's appearance in Two Rivers is not the simple case of coincidence it first appeared to be...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corvus
• Release date: Dec 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786490957

T. Greenwood

T. GREENWOOD's novels have sold over 300,000 copies. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her novel Bodies of Water was a 2014 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, and she is the recipient of four San Diego Book Awards. Keeping Lucy was a 2020 Target Book Club pick. Greenwood lives with her family in San Diego and Vermont.

Reviews for Two Rivers

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ms. Greenwood paints a realistic picture of a man stuck in one place, trying to make sense of the grief and guilt around the death of his wife. I loved the way the story alternated between the love story of Betsy and Harper, and the present day in Harper's life.

[limelite_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A haunting story set in Two Rivers, Vermont that, like the rushing Connecticut River and the eponymous quiet town creek, is the convergence of the tales of two people whose lives couldn’t be more different from each other.Who is the mysterious 15-year-old pregnant black girl named Maggie who survives a train derailment and insists that Harper Montgomery, a white widowed father of adolescent Shelly take care of her in exchange for her help in raising Shelly? Can Harper meet her and his own daughter’s needs, heal his long-time grief over the death of his wife Betsy, and redeem himself from the terrible guilt from his involvement in the murder of a black man twelve years ago? A murder during which he stood by and left the victim for dead in the same river from which Harper has plucked survivors of the train wreck.Greenwood has written a delicately unfolding story about redemption and salvation that is distinctive and memorable and echoes "To Kill a Mockingbird" in life lessons and humanity. But there are drawbacks: Maybe too many large themes? Maybe too much emotional angst? Maybe symbolism a bit heavy-handed? Still -- worth it to try other books by this author.

[auntmarge64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A novel of love, loss, anger, and redemption, told alternately in three time lines from one man's point of view. Wonderful in every way, pitch-perfect, and haunting.

[creighley_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Harper Montgomery has lived his entire life in Vermont raising his daughter. Married to the girl of his childhood dreams, his pregnant wife dies suddenly. He has never come to terms with his loss. It's a moving story of redumption.

[berylweidenbach · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Harper Montgomery, small town man has lived in Two Rivers all his life. He and Betsy his wife, long time sweehearts married in their twenties and were expecting their first child when she died. The daughter survived and he has raised her with the help of some family members. There is also a mystery under the surface that involves Harper, Beener and Ray his high school friends. This secret holds much guilt and anxiety for the three of them. When the story begins, a train derails in Two Rivers and one of the survivors, a pregnant fifteen year old girl seeks out Harper and needs a place to stay. Dispite his misgivings, he does take her in. There is more to this "chance" request than meets the eye.The story is told in current time and flashbacks, until slowly we are allowed to see exactly how his wife died and how the mystery of the long ago brutal crime between the three friends fits into the story. Also, why the appearance of the pregnant girl is not random.I felt the story was rather slow and plodding but I did want to find out how it all pulled together in the end. Harper was a frustrating character and much of the story was depressing. It did look in the end like everything had been resolved and his life would move forward from there, yet it didn't satisfy. I would not go out of my way to recommend this book.

[nbmars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Harper Montgomery has lived all his life in Two Rivers, Vermont, and he has loved Betsy Parker almost all his life too, since they were twelve. They grew up, courted, and married, but on the day their daughter Shelley was born, Betsy died. That was twelve years ago, and Harper still hasn’t gotten over it.Complicating matters is a lynching we keep reading about in flashbacks. The man killed had something to do with Betsy’s death, but we don’t find out what until the end. We do know right from the beginning though that Harper and his two best friends Ray and "Brooder" killed a man "with skin the color of blackberries” in the same year Betsy died. This is especially ironic because Harper’s mother was so liberal that she spent time in the South helping to register black voters, and also published a newsletter about civil rights.The chapters go back and forth in time. After we learn about the lynching in the past, we return to the present, and read that a young black pregnant girl named Maggie ends up in Two Rivers subsequent to a train derailment in the town. Harper is helping to rescue the victims, and Maggie seeks him out, begging for a place to stay. Reluctantly, he takes her to his house so she has a place to rest while he figures out how to get her back home. But Maggie refuses to go home - she says she was raped and she is afraid to go back. She offers to do childcare for Shelley and to cook and clean in exchange for being able to stay. Harper gives in, at least for the short term, not realizing the impact that Maggie's arrival will have on all of them.Discussion: Supposedly this book is about healing and redemption, but I just didn’t see it. Harper is incredibly self-absorbed, and has trouble seeing that there is more to the universe than his own pain and loss. He “pities” his father for his supposed “weakness” vis-a-vis Harper's mother, and yet his father seems to be twice the man Harper is. But Harper never figures that out. Moreover, he claims he “can blame every episode that caused me either embarrassment or shame on [one of his two best friends] Brooder.” Again, he takes no responsibility for anything. Even the lynching turns into Brooder’s fault. (Assigning the fault to Brooder apparently “counts” as “redemption” for that particular egregious act.)The reader feels like saying: look, I know Betsy was the love of your young life. But it has been twelve years. Get over it! And get over yourself! Your twelve-year-old daughter is more mature than you are! And look at Maggie: what about her pain, and her courage? Will you ever transcend your self-absorption and grow up? Evaluation: I liked this book, even though the main [living] character was irritating, and the main [dead] character wasn't much better. There are a couple of unsolved mysteries that push the reader on, and one also hopes the protagonist really will achieve “redemption” as promised by the [once again deceptive] blurbs. The writing isn’t bad, but ultimately, I was left feeling dissatisfied with Harper's lack of either self-awareness or atonement, not to mention, the plot in general. Nevertheless, it's an interesting read.

[fig2_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This stunning novel follows a man wrung by guilt and haunted by his past. He takes in a pregnant teenage victim of a train crash and then obsesses about the true nature of her arrival in his life. Yes, she is there for a different reason.His tortured history includes a revenge murder, madness, suicide, racial violence, and a long-deferred romance. This chilling, complex drama is full of true-life characters. It is a terrible, beautiful ride: you will love it. I read this book as an advance reader and absolutely begged my store to carry it!

[mikedraper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Harper Montgomery works at a local railroad station and lives conservatively with his daughter, Shelley. He's still grieving from his wife's death twelve years ago.One day he's informed of a train derailment in Two Rivers, Vermont. There are people trapped in the train. He runs to the river, crawls throught the water into a train car but isn't able to save anyone. Back on the shore, he sees a young girl with "skin the color of blackberries." She is shivering and desperate for a place to stay. Harper, still remembering an event connected to his wife's death and wanting to make amends, permits the girl to move in with him and his daughter. Later, he learns that the girl is expecting and came to Two Rivers looking for her brother. Harper fears what this might mean.This plot driven story dwells on Harper's turmoil throughout the book. It is oppressive and this reader felt that it would be good if he got some counseling and got on with his life.The setting of rural Vermont is beautifully told and picturesque. However, with Harper dwelling so much on the past and feeling such melancholy thoughts, it was depressing.

[mandy2_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two Rivers is surprisingly good. The opening was way too dramatic and made me afraid of what I was getting myself into. By the end I found myself completely engrossed and couldn't wait to find out how it ended while not wanting it to end. It flows between two time periods effortlessly. My only problem was once the past and future had more or less caught up with each other, I kept expecting to go back to the past, and had to reorient myself to the new rythm of the book. All in all, I really enjoyed this read.

[mashley_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good telling of small town life.