DANCE AT SUNRISE

Graham’s historical novel explores tragedies of life and the power of family bonds.

Sharing a deep sentimentality, siblings Mattie and Soren have always been close. In the 1960s, Soren chooses to channel his emotions through music, while Mattie drops out of college to pursue her sense of justice by campaigning against the Vietnam War. Everything changes when Soren is drafted; he gets hooked on drugs while fighting in the war, and upon his return to America, the music scene fuels his vices. By 1984, Soren is unhoused and estranged from his family until a chance encounter with the aunt who spurred his love for music renews his sense of purpose. She helps him get his life and his band back together and to eventually face his family again. Mattie is happy to be reunited with her brother, but his homecoming puts her back in contact with his guitarist, Mark, with whom she shared an on-and-off relationship in the ’60s that left her a single mother to their daughter, Emmy. Soren and Mark slowly earn their ways back into Mattie’s and Emmy’s lives, but when Emmy shows a proclivity for music, Mattie fears her daughter may follow in their unsteady footsteps. (“She knew that if Emmy pursued a career in music her daughter would be vulnerable to a world that Mattie had lost faith in.”) While the complex web of relationships may at first be overwhelming to readers unfamiliar with previous books in the author’s West of the Divide series, Graham has succeeded in crafting a sweeping, stand-alone intergenerational saga spanning the 1960s to the 2000s. The vividly observed details bring the family to life; the novel reads like a true family history. Soren’s narrative stands out for its nuance and emotional depth as it deftly foreshadows Emmy’s decision to pursue a similar passion.

An emotional and inspiring story of a family connected through their love of music.