Cottonwood Flowing

Seventeen-year-old Eva Kelly watches with anguish as her brothers are sent to fight in World War II. Caught up in the rigors of life on the home front, she finds her life changing even further when her hometown becomes refuge for some two hundred enemy prisoners. Sixty years later, Claire Beaudine returns to the place where she was raised. As her grandmother Eva lies unresponsive in a hospital bed, Claire finds, locked away in an old trunk, the journals of a young girl, coming of age in the turbulent 1940s. Claire, reading the pages, faces turmoil of her own. Returning home puts her in close proximity to the boy she knew and lost many years ago. While reading the journal, Claire learns of love, loss, and betrayal and seeks her own path to redemption. Interwoven between Eva's journals and Claire's memories are the stories of young men sent to war, the loved ones they left behind, and secrets that have been locked away for six decades.

Lewis' debut novel, Cottonwood Flowing, is the coming of age story of Eva Kelly, who at the tender age of 17 watched with anguish as her brothers were sent to fight in World War II. Back home in New Ulm, Minn., Eva found herself living not far from the camp where some 200 enemy prisoners of war were being held, and one of them had been sent to work on her family farm. Some 60 years later, Eva's granddaughter, Claire Beaudine, learns of forbidden love through a series of letters found in an old trunk. At the same time, Claire finds herself caught up in a dangerous affair of her own. Interwoven between Eva's journals and Claire's memories are the stories of young men sent off to war, the loved ones they left behind, and the secrets that have been locked away for six decades. When Eva is hospitalized, Detective Chris Bruening finds himself investigating the case, and the people in her life, including Eva's beautiful and haunted niece, Lyneah Hamilton. Does Lyneah's involvement with a drifter, Hank Beaudine make her an accomplice? As he gets closer to the truth, past and present collide, and the Cottonwood River gives up her secrets.

And so poet and naturalist Kathleen Cain fell in love with the cottonwood tree. Regarded by many as a nuisance, a "trash tree," the cottonwood not only has a fascinating history, it has served noble purposes as well. Ranging from Vermont to Arizona to Alaska, this native North American tree, in various sizes, shapes, and subspecies, has been a sacred symbol, a shelter providing relief from both heat and cold, a signpost for the lost and weary-and underneath its branches many dreams have been born. In a magical blend of art and science, the author looks not only at the cottonwood-how it grows, how it travels, and what it says-but at the roles it has played and continues to play in the art, health, and history of North America. If you need the science, you will find it here-if you need the human heart, you will find it here as well. "Champion" means winner, defender, something outstanding-a hero. After reading The Cottonwood Tree: An American Champion you will see why this remarkable tree stands so tall in the American landscape. Book jacket.