Savannah, GA: Frederic C. Beil (2005)

Marlin Barton's Dancing by the River is a superb collection of stories about the fascinating complexities of life in a small community. Winner of the O. Henry Award and the Andrew Lytle Prize, Barton has been called "one of the most distinctive new voices in Southern fiction," and this book, which entails the whole history of the community, proves that he is a masterful observer of family relations and the idiosyncratic logic that governs human lives. His writing does not call attention to itself - it is simple, powerful, and so fluid that it seems almost effortless.
A companion volume to The Dry Well, Marlin Barton's first collection of stories, the stories of Dancing by the River stand on their own, and prove that this is a book that is a gift for every reader ready to discover a vibrant sensibility fully engaged with the South.