River with No Bridge
“River with No Bridge is a gripping, sometimes heartbreaking story of immigrant survival in the West.”
–Jeanne Greene, Booklist Review
In 1882, Irish immigrant Nora Flanagan escapes the squalor of Boston’s North End by traveling to Butte, Montana, to marry Tade Larkin, a miner. Nora gains love and security, but Tade’s death ends her dreams. To support her daughter she takes in a lodger, gambler Bat Moriarty. Loneliness and youth lead to their brief affair which ends in Nora’s pregnancy. Bat slips out of Butte.
Nora relocates to Helena where tragedy strikes anew. Chinese Jim Li helps her find work as a housekeeper at the brothel where he serves as handyman and bouncer. Nora’s hatred of prejudice enables her to befriend the upstairs girls and handle the profane madam. Bat arrives on the night Nora gives birth. He is shot in a saloon brawl which also results in the brothel burning. As the conflagration goes on, both Jim and Nora make decisions that will affect them, and others, for the rest of their lives.
Traveling together to the wild North Fork of the Flathead River, they remain unaware that Bat is seeing revenge against Jim. Their lives become a challenging, romantic, wilderness adventure. They meet mountain men, Blackfeet, and fiercely independent settlers. They build home and family, but all is threatened when Bat reappears.
Hello. I’m an author, history buff, former teacher of children, teens, and adults, former practicing attorney, wife, mother of two, and am also a well-entertained cat owner.
I love to write, read, hike, and enjoy every aspect of Glacier National Park, which is almost in our back yard. I belong to a book club, but will talk about books, movies, and any of the arts with anybody who wants to enter the conversation.
Come join me!
Karen Wills
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