Seven Bridges, One River

The river does not keep the record. That is not a failure. It is the correct distribution of labour.Elena Costa arrives in Prague in October on commission: a long-form piece about the city's relationship with the Vltava in the twenty-three years since the catastrophic 2002 floods. She is sent to find Tomás Krejčí, a hydraulic engineer who has spent his career measuring the same river, maintaining the flood protection system, and keeping the record that the Vltava itself does not keep.Three weeks becomes a season. The October embankment walks become the February flood survey at four in the morning, gauge readings in the dark, the frazil ice in the torchlight. The engineering story becomes something else - a story about the relationship between accurate measurement and genuine understanding, between the record and the person who keeps it.Seven Bridges, One River is a novel about the work of staying - beside a river, in a place, with a person who understands the difference between knowing a number and knowing what the number means.Book Five in the Elena Costa Series. Also available: Salt on Your Dreams (1), LA Lonesome Nights (2), The Light We Leave in Paris (3), All the Quiet London Asks (4).Listen to the original title song "The River Keeps No Record" - composed and produced by Bruce Whitecorner: [https: //youtu.be/DAowDnKaXso?si=3ughhHdjV-gFUERT]Complete album on Apple Music: https: //music.apple.com/at/album/elena-costa-series-title-songs-to-carlos-de/6778771730

Pages: 152, Paperback, Independently published