Where the Silver River Ends

Book excerpt: Lyrical realism meets family drama meets sparkling folktale. Joan, a half-Chinese English conversation teacher who is unmoored in Europe, flees Budapest for a fresh start. Stepping off the train in Bratislava, she meets Milan, a proud Roma teenager, with whom she strikes up a friendship. Milan helps Joan to settle into the city, and in turn, Joan introduces him to Adriana, who has travelled to lay the memory of her dead mother to rest. They form an unlikely trio, bound by love and luck into something like family. The ensuing tale of youthful hope in the face of systemic oppression and racial violence, of family reconciliation and the magic of coincidence, asserts the primacy of love and courage in hard times. Where the Silver River Ends plumbs the depths of intergenerational relationships, mixed-race identity, and what happens when we gather the courage to step out of the current and make our own way in the world.