Once upon a river

by Diane Setterfield · 2018

On a bleak midwinter night, an ancient inn perched on the Thames at Radcot becomes the stage for an impossible miracle. A wounded stranger bursts through the door, cradling the lifeless body of a mute child. Hours later she gasps back to life, sparking a fevered scramble among the inn’s regulars and the three families who claim her. As they weave stories, science, superstition, and dark secrets collide, the riverbank community is forced to confront what it means to explain the unexplainable. Diane Setterfield’s lyrical, gothic prose draws readers into a haunting tale of identity, belonging, and the mysteries that linger just beyond the reach of reason.