The acclaimed bestseller -- a selection of Oprah s Book Club -- that brings vividly to life the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC circa 1925 and a community reeling from a young girl s tragic death. When five-year-old Clara Bynum drowns in the Potomac River under a seemingly haunted rock outcropping known locally as the Three Sisters the community must reconcile themselves to the bitter tragedy. Clarke powerful charts the fallout from Clara s death on the people she has left behind: her parents Alice and Willie Bynum torn between the old world of their rural North Carolina home and the new world of the city; the friends and relatives of the Bynum family in the Georgetown neighborhood they now call home; and most especially Clara s sister ten-year-old Johnnie Mae who is thrust into adolescence and must come to terms with the terrible and confused emotions stirred by her sister s death. This highly accomplished debut novel reverberates with ideas impassioned lyricism and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential and moving portrait of the Washington DC community.