Christian Bend — Karen Spears Zacharias

Christian Bend isn't the kind of place where one expects to find the sorts of secrets the widow Burdy Luttrell has been harboring. Tucked in the hills of East Tennessee, Christian Bend is a place of piercing beauty, where the rivers and love run constant. A community of people who care for each other, the land, the music, and the stories that bind them. It's called Christian Bend because so many people who settled the area shared the same last name, Christian. It's a name they all tried to live up to.

Even so, Burdy never could bring herself to tell Rain Hurd the truth about his father. She'd always meant to, but put it off until that day she was nearly killed in the shooting at Bean Station. As soon as he heard about the shooting, Rain left his job in Rhode Island and flew to Burdy's bedside at that Knoxville hospital. That's when Burdy told him about the letters.

Rain didn't believe her at first but once he found the letters, Rain was faced with a trauma of his own: What had prompted his father to abandon his family? And would Rain ever be able to forgive him the death of his mother? Would anyone at Christian Bend? Or would the community, which had long proudly regarded Zebulon Hurd as their own war hero, now abandon the aging veteran to the grief that overwhelmed him?