The River Muse

Escaping to a cozy world (from Colorado to La Chanson, a fictional village in Provence, also Aix-en-Provence, Southern France): Laura Resau weaves magic in The River Muse. A healing novel coming from a “fantastical realm.” Not everything is enchanted, though. Warmly signed, the Author’s Note prefaces a story set in two dramatically different worlds with a “heads-up about sensitive content” to “help us feel seen, heard, healed, and connected.” Not without ending to assure us, “Dogs are a joyful part of this story!” Three truffle-hunting dogs, to be specific. One of a number of ancient traditions in an idyllic setting in a fictional Provençal village in the South of France, with a mythical river flowing through it. Resau switches between taking us inside a dreamy village to inside a “glass prison” perched high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. A “seven-million-dollar cabin” of abuse. The story revolves around two main characters who escape to the village, their refuge: late thirties…