{"product_id":"river-angel-9780380729746","title":"River Angel","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn April 1991, in a little Wisconsin town about a hundred miles southwest of the town where I grew up, a misfit boy was kidnapped by a group of high school kids who, later, would testify they'd merely meant to frighten him, to drive him around for a while. Somehow they ended up at the rive, whooping and hollering on a two-lane bridge. Somehow the boy was shoved, he jumped, he slipped--acounts vary--into the icy water. The kids told police they never heard a splash; one reported seeing a brilliant flash of light. (Several people in the area witnessed a similar light, while others recalled hearing something \"kind of like thunder.\") All night, volunteers walked the river's edge, but it was dawn before the body was found in a barn a good mile from the bridge . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe owner of the barn had been the one to discover the body, and she said the boy's cheeks were rosy, his skin warm to the touch. A sweet smell hung in the air. \"It was,\" she said \"as if he were just sleeping.\" And then she told police she believed an angel had carried him there.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor years, it had been said that an angel lived in the river. Residents flipped coins into the water for luck, and a few claimed they had seen the angel, or known someone who'd seen it. The historical society downtown had a farmwife's journal, dated 1898, in which a woman described how an angel had rescued her family from a flood. Now, as the story of the boy's death spread, more people came forward with accounts of strange things that had happened on that night. Dogs had barked without ceasing till dawn; livestock broke free of padlocked barns. Someone's child crayoned a bridge and, above it, a wide-winged tapioca angel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA miracle? A hoax? Or something in between? With acute insight and great compassion, A. Manette Ansay captures the inner life of a town and its residents struggling to forge a new identity in the face of a rapidly changing world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnsay, A. Manette:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003eA. Manette Ansay is the author of eight books, including \u003cem\u003eVinegar Hill\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMidnight Champagne\u003c\/em\u003e (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and \u003cem\u003eBlue Water\u003c\/em\u003e. She has received the Pushcart Prize, two Great Lakes Book Awards, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches in the MFA writing program at the University of Miami.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50410806575378,"sku":"9780380729746","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_1f6fd2b2-ccc7-48f3-8408-975c2ca92f31.jpg?v=1729308137","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/river-angel-9780380729746","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}