The River Knows Your Name: A Novel

· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Lisa Larsen
1 review
Audiobook
10 hr 52 min
Unabridged
Eligible
Want a free 1 hr 5 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

For nearly thirty years, Nell has kept a childhood promise to never reveal what she and Evie found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre in their mother's bookcase—a record of Evie's birth naming a stranger as her mother. But lately, Nell has been haunted by hazy memories of their early life in Mississippi, years their reclusive mother, Hazel, has kept shrouded in secrecy. Evie recalls nothing before their house on Clay Mountain in North Carolina, but Nell remembers abrupt moves, odd accommodations, and the rainy night a man in a dark coat and a hat pulled low climbed their porch steps with a very little girl—Evie—then left without her.



In dual storylines, Nell, forty-two in 1971, reaches into the past to uncover dangerous, long-buried secrets, and Becca, a young mother in the early 1930s, presses ahead, each moving toward 1934, the catastrophic year that would forever link them.



From a windswept ghost town long forgotten, to a river house in notorious Natchez Under-the-Hill, to a moody nightclub stage, Evie's other mother emerges from the shadows of Depression-era Mississippi in a story of hardship and perseverance, of betrayal and trust, and of unexpected redemption in a world in which the lines between heroes and culprits are not always clearly drawn.
For nearly thirty years, Nell has kept a childhood promise to never reveal what she and Evie found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre in their mother's bookcase—a record of Evie's birth naming a stranger as her mother. But lately, Nell has been haunted by hazy memories of their early life in Missi...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

1 review
Trio Reviews
May 7, 2025
Holy smokes what a gorgeous novel! I absolutely loved Kelly Mustian's The River Knows Your Name. The story takes place over two timelines, the early 1930's and the early 1970's. When a girl discovers the woman who raised her isn't her birth mother, the story unravels to explain the mystery. The dual timeline format is beautifully executed by Mustian, and they absolutely nail this aspect of the story.
Did you find this helpful?

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.