Season of Open Water (eBook)

Dawn Tripp (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2007 | 1. Auflage
304 Seiten
Random House Publishing Group (Verlag)
978-0-307-43260-5 (ISBN)

Infos

BONUS: This edition contains a The Season of Open Water discussion guide and an excerpt from Dawn Tripp's Game of Secrets.

From the critically acclaimed author of Moon Tide comes a mesmerizing novel of love and violence, family and betrayal. The Season of Open Water is the passionate, searing story of a young woman coming of age in a New England seacoast town that is swept up in the dangerous trade of rum-running.

It is October 1927. Bridge Weld is nineteen, headstrong and beautiful, working in her grandfather Noel's boatbuilding shop. When Noel is approached by a local bootlegger to refit a boat for smuggling, he feels in his gut that he should not accept the work, yet he takes the job for the money it offers and for the chance it gives him to build a future for his beloved granddaughter, Bridge, and her brother, Luce. What Noel doesn't count on is that Luce will be lured into the rum work himself and will try to pull Bridge into it with him.

But Bridge has embarked on a different course. Caught up in a passion for Henry, a veteran of World War I, Bridge is propelled beyond the confines of her known world, and ultimately she must choose between the man who loves her and the brother to whom she has been loyal all her life. As Bridge strikes out on her own, Luce's fierce attachment spirals out of control.

Exquisitely written, haunting in its rendering of place, The Season of Open Water is a superb novel about a family and the lawlessness of the heart, a love story that explores the often inescapable connections between violence and desire.

Textauszug

Bridge Bridge first meets Henry Vonniker at the gathering after her cousin Asa's funeral. She does not see him right away. She does not notice when he comes into the room. She sits on a chair against the wall, a plate of food resting on her knees. She wears a white blouse, a wool skirt, and hard black shoes. The yellow glow of the kerosene light plays across the top edge of her plate, and she slides her knife through a boiled potato, splitting it in half. Steam rises from the flesh.

It is early evening, after candlelight. The room is crowded. The dead man's mother and his sister cry quietly in one corner. Two men, dairy farmers from Blossom Road, stand in front of Bridge, their backs turned toward her. They talk about Asa--how he had made quite a name for himself in the rum-running trade, then double-crossed the wrong man.

'Went all the way to Texas to get out of trouble,' one remarks. 'And trouble followed him all the way out there.' The man speaking is a big man, a gray wool jacket tight across his shoulders.

'Did Asa find work out in Texas?'

'Yeah. Hauling water to the roughnecks at the oil wells. Talk was, someone wanted the job and killed him for it. Hard to believe--the guy slips out of the booze here, slips out by the skin of his teeth, then gets knocked off selling water.'

The other man, black-haired and smaller, in a pinstripe suit, doesn't answer. He digs one hand into his pocket and glances over his shoulder. He notices Bridge sitting behind them. His eye trails down her leg. Then he catches her eye on him. His face flushes and he looks away, ashamed. He draws his handkerchief from his trouser pocket. A folded ten-dollar bill falls to the floor. He does not no- tice it.

Bridge stays with her knife and fork poised, staring at the dropped bill that lies less than six inches from her shoe. The two farmers go on talking about the dead man, one saying how he remembers when Asa was a boy, his uncle took him to the first World Series in 1903, the year the Boston Pilgrims beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. When slugger Buck Freeman popped one high into the crowd, Asa--nine years old--reached up and caught that ball with his bare hands.

'He caught a ball alright--small shiny bullet kind between the eyes. Black luck runs through that whole brood.'

Bridge bites her lip as the smaller, dark-haired man clears his throat and jerks a slight nod over his shoulder at her. The big man turns and takes her in. He smiles. She smiles back and goes on cutting up her food.

'Just saying the way I see it, Leo,' the man says, turning back around. He pauses, then remarks, 'Pete Lowry came in earlier. Did you see that? He's short on brains to show up here.'

Bridge slices off a piece of turkey and spears it with her fork. Without looking down, she slides her right foot across the floor and covers the ten-dollar bill with her shoe.

'Who's the natty dresser over there?'

'Where?'

'In the corner. Standing with Millie.'

'Oh that's Vonniker. Forget the first name. He's Millie's boss at the mill.'

'Never seen him before.'

'Lives down on West Beach. The big house near the causeway. Was a doctor once. War ate him up.'

'War'll do that.'

'To some.'

They fall silent for a moment, looking toward the corner of the room. Without taking her shoe off the bill on the floor, Bridge leans slightly forward in her chair and follows their gaze.

Across the room next to Asa's mother stands a man in a dark suit. Bridge has never seen him before. He wears glasses. The bones of his face are strong, and he is tall, a few inches taller than Bridge's brother, Luce. As Bridge watches, the man...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.12.2007
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 0-307-43260-2 / 0307432602
• ISBN-13: 978-0-307-43260-5 / 9780307432605