Where the Rivers Merge bookends and then fills in the life of Eliza Rivers, born in 1900 in a country home/rice plantation. Her father lost his fortune but he married her wealthy mother who initially agreed to raise the family at Mayfield Hall, rebuilt after it was burned during the Civil War. Eliza is the feisty, tomboy middle child whose mother despairs of her ever becoming a lady. We meet Eliza first in 1908 when she discovers an old oak tree she can fit into (this matters), a new friend who happens to be Black and tries to navigate through her desire to ride horses like a champion while learning to do what ladies do.
We also meet Eliza in 1988, the scion of a successful business that she pulled together and made highly profitable. She has always loved Mayfield Hall and she lives part time there and part time in Charleston. She has a grown son, Arther and two granddaughters in their late teens. Arthur is furious at her because she has put almost all of the land around Mayfield Hall into a conservancy. She wants the land’s unique ecosystem and lovely natural state to survive. Arthur plans to try to push Eliza out of her role as chair and take over the company, but his goal is to make money and certainly not to preserve the land. Eliza’s goal then is to quickly put the rest of the land into the conservancy, the part including Mayfield Hall. In the course of this family discord, an unexpected shareholder comes to the meeting. Because of this shareholder and another relative, Eliza’s story of the years between her young teenaged years and the present gets told.in a totally engrossing, beautifully written, complex and satisfying way.
Read it.
They Called me Bookworm 