If the Ice Had Held

By Wendy J. Fox

Book Overview

A family's secrets ripple through generations in this poignant literary novel set in Colorado. Melanie Henderson's life is a lie. The scandal of her birth and the identity of her true parents is kept from her family's small, conservative Colorado town. Not even she knows the truth: that her birth mother was just 14 and unmarried to her father, a local boy who drowned when he tried to take a shortcut across an icy river. Thirty-five years later, in Denver, Melanie dabbles in affairs with married men while clinging to a corporate job that gives her life order even as her tenuous relationships fall apart. She still hasn't learned that the woman who raised her is actually her aunt--or that her birth mother visits her almost every day. This fiercely-guarded secret bonds the two most important women in her life, who hatched a plan to trade places and give Melanie a life unmarred by shame. Yet, as a forest fire rages through the Rocky Mountains and a car accident shakes the family, Melanie finds herself at the center of an unraveling tangle of tragedy and heartbreak.If the Ice Had Held speaks with a natural lyricism, and presents a cast of characters who quietly struggle through complicated lives. For readers of literary fiction, family dramas, and stories about women's lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1939650917
• ISBN13: 9781939650917
• Release Date: May 2019
• Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"