River of Sorrow

THE DEATH OF A CHILD is perhaps the greatest tragedy a family can know there are endless ripples of change and loss. In her striking first novel, River, Cross My Heart (Little, Brown, $23), Breena Clarke (left), a Washington, D.C., native, lets the reader share the sorrow of the Bynum family of Georgetown in 1925, when their baby, 5-year-old Clara, drowns in the Potomac River while she is on a forbidden swimming trip with her 10-year-old sister, Johnnie Mae.

The story is told largely from the perspective of Johnnie Mae, who feels responsible for her sister's death. Clarke skillfully limns the lives of those left behind not just the family but also the community. She makes us care about Johnnie Mae's struggles to release her burden of guilt and grow into the kind of woman her sister--and the rest of her family--can be proud of. Clarke is a writer to watch, both for her brilliant use of language and her ambition in terms of subject. In her able hands, the Bynums are a family you won't soon forget.