Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

The Thames runs where it will and man does not know its secrets.  One such secret is found one night when a man and a small girl are pulled from the river and brought to an inn.  The local nurse is sent for and she is able to help the man but the girl is beyond hope.  She has gone to another place.  As the body is washed, however, the girl suddenly startles and is alive.  How can this be?  Rita, the nurse, is sure the girl was dead and yet she is breathing and looking around although not talking.  Who can she be?

It turns out that she could be one of several girls who have disappeared.  The Vaughns, wealthy landowners, had a little girl who was kidnapped two years ago.  When the mother sees the little girl, she is sure it is her Amelia returned to her.  But the son of a local farming family claims that it is his daughter; his wife has recently committed suicide and his daughter disappeared although the mother was seen leading her towards the river.  A local charwoman is sure it is Ann, her little sister although the woman is in her forties and unlikely to have a four year old sister.  Some say she is supernatural, the child of the boatman who takes souls across after death.  Who can it be?

As the story unfolds, so do several other stories.  There is the story of the man who saved the girl, a photographer who falls in love with the nurse.  There is the story of the farmer who is the offspring of royalty and a black maid, never fitting into either of his families but who has created a wonderful family of his own.  There is the story of the charwoman and the abuse she has suffered and continues to suffer. 

Diane Setterfield has done a wonderful job of tying all these disparate threads together into a satisfying resolution.  The reader is swept into the watery environment and the rural setting and struggles along with the villagers to discern what has truly occurred.  The novel explores our sense of belonging and the feeling of separateness that many of us experience even surrounded by others.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.