What the Reviewers Had To Say...

"Ellen Behrens's ...accomplished first novel... in self-assured prose, recounts the dramas and dilemmas of a host of characters.... [H]er writing takes on the energy and freedom of Theodore Thompson's bluesy saxophone, making music that soars."

"[A] dreamlike first novel about the residents of a sleepy Ohio town who awaken to long-dormant sexual yearnings when an ancient Indian burial ground is unearthed in their midst.... Behrens's language is rich, her portraits of small-town folk ring true and she is able to intuit, and to make manifest, intimations of the sacred that seep into everyday life."

"First novelist Behrens grew up in Clyde, Ohio -- Sherwood Anderson's setting for Winesburg, Ohio -- and found the basis for an intriguing novel in the major events and the minutiae of small-town life. Recommended for general collections."

"Ellen Behrens' first novel has the quiet but charged atmosphere of a withheld thunderstorm.... A small Ohio farm and factory town, all straight lines and open doors, might seem one of the least mysterious places on Earth, but Behrens finds a reserved magic in it, catalyzed by the discovery of an Indian burial site on a farm outside town.... Behrens sets up challenges for her characters, but she doesn't seem to manipulate their responses to those challenges to make a point. The result is a novel made up of small moments of illumination, like porch lights guiding the way home."

"Only an outsider, Eddy Light Sky, a drifter passing through, can see clearly amidst the town's turbulence, and through him we hear the gentle lull of an unseen saxophone at night, and realize what a wealth of things lie hidden, even in a seemingly quiet factory town. A literary masterpiece by an obviously gifted writer."

"Looking hard and lovingly at this well-known place, she finds a time of dayat which the obvious begins to shade into the strange.... Behrens also finds mystery in the ways people come together or break apart.... In this quiet story, Behrens lets us get to know this small town even better than its natives do. By treating the place and its people with respect, she reminds us that each place has its own special magic."

"The discovery of the burial ground of an unknown and ancient peoples on an Ohio farm provides the background for this magical tale, the first novel for poet, essayist and reviewer Ellen Behrens.... The story is a beautifully told parable the reader will long remember."