Kate Betterton

Parrish is caught in the crossfires of Mississippi's racial tensions, as the Civil Rights Movement sweeps into her state. Protecting some Yankee Civil Rights workers she's befriended, she takes a risk that carries her onto the razor's edge between living and dying, learns the truth about the soul's immortality...and finds an unexpected romance.

"Homespun and profound, deadpan and poetic, hilarious and heartbreaking, Kate Betterton's WHERE THE LAKE BECOMES THE RIVER puts me in mind of Walker Percy, John Kennedy Toole and Harper Lee. Her voice, like her imagination, is inspired and authentic to its deep-South core. A wonderful debut."
--Joseph Bathanti, author of COVENTRY, and EAST LIBERTY

"WHERE THE LAKE BECOMES THE RIVER by Kate Betterton ought to come with a warning label: put on your sweats, cancel all appointments and get comfortable because, once you start reading, you won't want to stop until you've devoured the whole delectable, unforgettable thing. The voice of Parrish McCullough, this novel's feisty, sensitive heroine, creates a current of gorgeous prose and irresistible storytelling that will carry you away."
--Pamela Duncan, author of MOON WOMEN, and THE BIG BEAUTIFUL

"Kate Betterton's WHERE THE LAKE BECOMES THE RIVER manages to be so many things at once: a southern novel, a novel of the far east, a tender exploration of the lives of girls and a wise, clear-eyed look at the lives lived between men and women. A book of great tenderness, filled with fine and delicately embroidered prose, it is also a book that is full of swagger and sass. Betterton has created a complex world that lives and breathes far beyond these pages." --Virginia Holman, author of RESCUING PATTY HEARST

"Lush and tangled as a house covered in kudzu, WHERE THE LAKE BECOMES THE RIVER is also as mysterious as creatures swimming unseen in a cool, dark, southern pond. Ghosts, history (both in the making and already made), family myth, sweet tea and fried catfish all play an important part in the life of Parrish McCullough, who lives in the Mississippi Delta, where, as she says, 'eccentricity is prized like fine wine.'"
--Nancy Peacock, author of LIFE WITHOUT WATER, and A BROOM OF ONE'S OWN