Where the River Ends
In Where the River Ends, novelist Charles Martin brings us an unforgettable story of enduring love and courage. Chris Michaels and Abbie Colman should never have met, let alone fallen in love. As the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most senior senator, Abbie’s father had wanted better for her than Chris, who grew up in a trailer park next to the St Mary’s river. Abbie and Chris had married quickly and secretly, returning to face her parents’ objections that haven’t faded even after over fourteen years of marriage.
But now Abbie and Chris are coming to the end of the road. Diagnosed with breast cancer four years earlier, Abbie’s case is now terminal and they’ve run out of options. Rather than letting Abbie spend her final days in a cold, sterile hospital room, Chris packs their bags and steals away with her in the middle of the night.
They carry with them Abbie’s ‘wish list’ – ten things she wants to do before she dies. The wishes are simple, normal; because after four years of non-stop invasive medical treatments, ‘normal’ is a fleeting memory. Along with taking a final trip with Chris on the river that holds so many memories for them both, Abbie wants to dance with her husband, drink wine on a beach, and laugh until it hurts… But as they head for river’s end, Abbie’s father - along with most every major news network and law enforcement agency in the South – are determined to find them and bring Abbie home…
The following discussion topics and author interview are designed to enhance your reading of the novel and we hope may help promote discussion with the members of your book group.
Readers’ Guide
Starting Points for Your Discussion
Questions for Discussion:
1. Chris recalls overcoming his suffocating asthma and growing up without a father figure. Abbie had to cope with the death of her mother and life with a domineering father. In what ways did Chris and Abbie heal each other through love?
2. Discuss the St. Mary’s River as a character in Where the River Ends. How does the timeless symbolism of water - as cleansing, life-sustaining, and ever-changing - shape the novel? Where does the river ultimately take Chris and Abbie?
3. What versions of beauty are presented in the novel? What does Chris discover about himself by painting Rosalia in chapter fifteen? Why are some able to see inner beauty, or unconventional physical beauty, while others are not?
4. What does the novel indicate about modern medicine and its limits? What was Chris able to do for Abbie that no doctor could?
5. How does Chris and Abbie’s journey down the river compare to their fantasy of it? What does it say about them that, despite the lack of creature comforts or security, they are able to savour every moment of the voyage? Why was Abbie better off without traditional hospice care?
6. Which of the wishes on Abbie’s list seemed the most difficult to achieve? Which one would have been the most exhilarating for you?
7. What does Bob’s history as a defrocked religious leader say about the frailty of human beings, and the power of second chances?
8. How was the storytelling enhanced by the author’s use of flashbacks?
9. Were you surprised by the scene of forgiveness between Chris and his father-in law at the end?
10. If you were faced with Abbie’s prognosis, what unfulfilled promises and unfinished wishes would you make haste to experience? What would it take to accomplish the dreams on this list even if you were not faced with Abbie’s fate?
Other Books by the Author
The Dead Don’t Dance
Maggie
When Crickets Cry
Wrapped in Rain
Chasing Fireflies
Suggested Further Reading
Lost & Found - Jacqueline Sheehan (Ebury Press 2008)
How to Talk to a Widower - Jonathan Tropper (Orion 2007)
Love Story - Erich Segal (Coronet 2006)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (Oxford University Press 2008)