The Backwater

Sabine Kelly has been on the run for years. As a teen she was accused of arson that killed nine people, including her mother and sister. The Sabine whom readers meet seems hardened by her years on the road—or rather, on the river, hiding as she does in a houseboat on the same rural Australia waterway she grew up by, with her drug-addicted mother and a sister she had to parent. But she doesn’t seem capable of the crime she’s running from. Instead, she seems scarred by it and desperate for the truth to come out, but powerless to make that happen. Enter Rachel Weidermann, a journalist who lives next to Sabine’s grandfather, a complicated character called Pop. She’s been obsessed for years with getting Sabine’s story, and when she sees the fugitive visiting Pop, she is excited to both get answers and save her fading career. Following the women, as Sabine learns to trust someone and Rachel to let things unfold imprecisely, offers both an engrossing journalism procedural tale and a look at what can happen when goodness meets desperation. Setting is as prominent as characterization and plot here, with all combining to create a memorable tale of redemption.