'Edna O'Brien is one of the greatest writers in the English-speaking world' New York Times Book Review In the deceptively idyllic setting of rural Ireland, a crime of passion results in an emotional battlefield. At the centre of the crisis a young girl struggles with the conflicts of mind and body, the teaching of her faith and her mounting bewilderment at what she must do. As she tries to conceal, then escape her fate, she finds herself driven to the brink of despair. And then her private - and redeemable - tragedy is dragged into the public realm, and the power of decision is taken out of her hands. 'An angry, violent yet startlingly beautiful book' Independent on Sunday 'Taut and relentlessly powerful . . . O'Brien describes the tug of war between religious zealots and the kindly legal figures brilliantly. The story becomes grotesquely suspenseful and chilling' Literary Review 'Extraordinary and gripping . . . Down by the River is her most exciting and rewarding book by far' Observer