LAST YEAR'S RIVER

An unexpected, passionate relationship between two lonely people from strikingly different backgrounds is at the heart of Jones's luminous first novel. In 1919, 17-year-old Virginia Price is a sophisticated New York debutante. Her father's recent death has left her shaken and unmoored, feelings exacerbated when she is raped and impregnated by her louche boyfriend, Charlie Stroud. Virginia and her aunt are dispatched to Frank Mohr's Wyoming ranch to await the baby's birth. Ranch life is a vivid contrast to her life in the city; she is unaccustomed to the reticence of these Westerners—Frank's abused wife, Rose, and cowboys Dewey and Adze among them—and to her new status as a fallen woman and a local curiosity. She's puzzled by Frank's son, Henry: at 24, he exists in a state of ennui, brought on by a vague restlessness, abuse by his father and what he observed during his war years in France. He and Virginia begin a clandestine relationship. Then Charlie appears at the ranch, determined to marry Virginia and begin their new life in Boston. Henry remains resolute in his love for Virginia, while Virginia is openly contemptuous of Charlie. Inevitably, tensions escalate and are released in a series of suspenseful and dramatic events. Both Henry's and Virginia's thoughts unfold in graceful prose, broken into short chapters full of small moments freighted with significance. Reminiscent of Plainsong in its evocation of Western atmosphere and daily rhythms, the novel should make the reader impatient for Jones's next effort. 6-city author tour. (Oct. 22)

Forecast:Western readers familiar with the periodical Big Sky Journal, which Jones edited until recently, will gravitate to this impressive novel first; good regional sales and word of mouth should bring critical attention.