i'd like to give this an extra half star -- somewhere between 'i liked it' and 'i really liked it'. stronger in the second half than in the first, beautifully sad at the end, it still strayed sometimes into twee, lists that went on a little too long; it felt somehow like something unfinished. i found the illustration intrusive, coming as it did, seemingly at random. i want to like it more than i do; i like it less than i feel i ought. ( )

A young girl grows up in the forest, all alone but for her father, who is always at her side. When she was quite young her mother left her, why she did not know. As a woman her husband leaves her, again she can not say why. The only thing she is sure of is the river and her duty to it. For she is not of our world, she is a river wife.

By day she walks the earth as a woman, weaving the stories of the river, by night she sheds her human skin for scales, swimming the rivers with only the moon for company. She has lived for a long time, and will go on living even longer. But she has been alone for a long time, even her father who sits by the river has become still and silent.

Long had she questioned her place, her world, her self? Was she a woman who turned into a fish, or was she a fish who turned into a woman? Why had everyone she had ever loved left her? Then one day love came to her river, and somehow he reached through to her world, reached through to her.

For the first time she stopped questioning, and allowed love to take her. But no matter how strong, love can not endure forever. For if it lasts through fault and temper, ultimately one or the other will succumb to death. No one can fight the inevitable, that with love there is sacrifice, and that sometimes in order to save the one you love, you must leave them.

A simple but brilliantly tender story to submerge yourself in. Uniquely stunning in its story telling, The River Wife is a heartbreakingly beautiful story that weaves love and magic with the enduring qualities of nature and time. A lovely modern fable with a timeless quality. ( )