A review by spennock
River of Dust by Virginia Pye

4.0

River of Dust is set in northwestern China in 1910 about a decade after the Boxer Rebellion. The novel tells of the soul-numbing tragedies that befall a young American missionary couple and their struggle to cope with the sorrow in the framework of their Christian faith. As other reviewers have mentioned, there is a pervasive sadness about the book and you can almost feel the layer of yellow dust settling over the "Reverend" and his wife, Grace as they struggle on. The sadness of the story is somewhat tempered by the mystical quality of the prose and the fact that the novel is based in part on the real life experiences of the author's grandfather.