Michael K. Brown

Somewhere A River

ONE MAN’S LONG ROAD TO REDEMPTION

In 1959 Billy Burdette is a high school football hero in a small town in Alabama. He’s in love with Olivia Alexander, the prettiest girl in town. Billy leads his team to the state championship and receives a scholarship to his beloved university. His life seems perfect. But a traumatic incident ends his football career and a tragic decision causes him and Olivia to drift apart. When the civil rights movement heats up, Alabama becomes the eye of the storm and Billy decides to move far away from all the turmoil and disappointment in his life.

Thirty years later, now known as Bill, he is homeless in Wyoming where he has lived in self-imposed exile since leaving the South. Bill is unemployed, evicted from his trailer, and deeply depressed by the downward spiral of his life. His mind keeps returning to a fateful night when he dropped a bag from a bridge into Alabama’s Black Warrior River and sped away in guilty panic. Bill Burdette’s life moves from a boy with the world at his feet to a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then slowly, he begins the long road toward redemption.

PRAISE FOR SOMEWHERE A RIVER:

Winner of the 2015 Georgia Author of the Year Award presented by The Georgia Writers Association:

"Brown's story centering on a fallen Alabama football hero who finds himself homeless and suicidal in his late forties in Wyoming is a tightly-written structurally complex novel that keeps the reader keenly engaged in chapters that move back and forth across decades. Through compelling scenes, Brown's novel confronts issues of race, abortion, broken love, and family relationships without ever becoming didactic or preachy. His narrative immerses the reader into the world of his characters' lives and the decisions they make on the hard road to redemption. Many moments in the novel resonate with the reader long after the final page."

—Joseph Sam Starnes, Judge: Georgia Author of the Year, Literary Fiction

“Mike Brown is a wonderful storyteller. In Somewhere a River he weaves together the complex fabric of racial hatred, Alabama football, tragic mistakes, family rivalry, and romance. The story gains momentum with the development of each character, and becomes a page turner. I did not want this book to end!”

—Bill Curry, former Georgia Tech student/athlete, NFL veteran, and collegiate head football coach

“An extraordinary story composed by an equally extraordinary author. Michael K. Brown’s Somewhere a River takes you on a bittersweet journey of redemption—an unforgettable trek of reconciliation in the finest of Southern traditions.”

—Jedwin Smith, author of Our Brother’s Keeper

“…beautifully flawed characters who get lost on an emotional roller coaster in a poignant tale of lost love and a struggle for redemption.”

—Fred Styles, veteran movie and television filmmaker including 2014 Sedona Film Festival winner Wish You Well

“With a perceptive eye and sensitive heart, Michael K. Brown recreates how a man’s early years evolve into a river of discovery that reveals not only an individual’s character but also that of a culture.”

—Nancy Compton Williams, nationally and internationally published poet

“The story quickly pulled me in and wouldn’t let go. Well-crafted and relevant reminder that everyone has a river of memories somewhere.”

—JD Weeks, author of Premocar-Made in Birmingham and Birmingham Then & Now