My fellow writer and friend from my Heart of the Fantasy writing workshop is having her book published this month. Yes, a book baby, as author Cindy Lord calls them.
And so, without further ado, here's my review of Donna's upcoming book, The Braided Path, published by Edge of Calgary, Alberta.
In this beautifully crafted debut novel, Len Rope-Maker is a young widow who lives with her son, Cam, in a quiet mountainside village, a village connected to the other villages by a single path that winds up and down the mountain. Cam is restless, a far-walker more interested in testing the limits of his endurance and pushing beyond the known boundaries of his world than in settling into a trade like the other villagers. His sweetheart, Fox, is also a far-walker. Together they hike up and down the mountainside from village to village, pushing each other on.
One day Cam decides to venture farther up the mountain than anybody they know has ever gone. Drawn by the lovely blue-green sea glimpsed from an outcropping of rock, Fox is more interested is going down the mountainside to the bottom of the world. And so Cam sets off, leaving Fox behind.
Days pass, then weeks. Before long Fox learns she's expecting. Little by little, over the course of several years, she and Len work their way down the mountain with Fox's baby, Jade. Fox wonders if her life will ever intertwine again with Cam's or if Cam will ever meet his daughter. Len wonders if her son has fallen off the side of the mountain to his death like his father. Cam longs for his sweetheart but is pulled deeper into the unknown world by a sequence of accidents. Will their paths ever again cross and come together?
The theme of interconnectedness alluded to in the title is deftly woven through William's novel in lovely, poetic language that will astound and delight the reader. Through close glimpses and carefully chosen details, Williams breathes life and depth into the vertical world of The Braided Path.
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