The voice of the river

the long version

"Missing: seventeen-year-old Kai Dionne and his dog Talia. The search for these two spans a single day, morning twilight to late evening, from the time Kai leaps in a half-frozen river to save the dog to the hour he and Talia are recovered. Each person who comes to the river brings his or her secret needs and desires; each has known loss, and all are survivors: a homeless boy tries to find himself, his lost twin, his double; a childless mother grieves for her son and daughter; a man who shot his father recalls a tender, intimate night when the father was kind, and not afraid, and not angry. Kai and Talia belong to, and are loved by, a whole community. As strangers work together toward a single cause, they become family--bound by love not only to the ones lost, but to all who gather."--Publisher's description.