Spinners' Wharf

The third in a series (Proud Mary; Copper Kingdom interconnected through strongly realized female characters, this is the story of another capable Welsh woman. Rhian Gray is forced to leave a relatively decent job in a Yorkshire mill to care for an aged relative back home in South Wales. She endures hardships eking out an existence in the preWorld War I mining village of Sweyn's Eye. Even more difficult is the sublimation of her yearning for her former employer, who after the war will be her husband. The stormy entanglements of the other women of the community, from high as well as low estate, swirl around the central activity of Rhian's development as an independent and sensuous woman. A long tale, colored with the lively nuance of the Irish and Welsh tongues, it will satisfy followers of the earlier books. (April 7)