Henrietta Canning awakes one morning in April, 1917 to the sort of phone call that every parent dreads. A girl was seen falling - or did she jump? - into the Hudson River in New York City. A purse wrapped around her wrist proclaimed her Lily Canning. Was it her? Did someone take her purse?

What follows is the story of how family, friends, and community deal with the tragic loss of a talented young woman. Eight of Lily’s friends and loved ones each get to share with us their thoughts and feelings as they find out about and deal with her death.

I was sort of apprehensive about this book through the end of the first chapter. It started out a bit slow and I wasn’t sure what I should be expecting. By the time I got through the second chapter, though, I was intrigued. It worked very well for me to sit down and read a single chapter each time I sat down to read. In that way I savored the book and kept each individual’s memories of Lily from running together. By the end I was really very much enjoying this book and was extremely pleased to see Lily get to tell the story of the last day of her life herself in one of the very last chapters. ( )

This was a great book. It’s set in 1917 - New York. A vagrant sees the talented and lovely Miss Lily Canning jump off of a bridge into the Hudson River. Her family and friends are baffled by her decision and are left to grasp at straws, searching for answers. The looming war in Europe adds texture to the psychological tension built throughout the story.

The story is brilliantly told via different persons in Lily’s sphere. Each chapter is narrated by a different character, who more or less picks up the narrative where the last character left off. In some hands, such a device might be distracting or annoying, but Marchetta managed to pull it off seemlessly. And, while I’m thinking about it, Marchetta’s writing is seemless, too. It was realistic, and details about the period were sown in and communicated effortlessly. I was truly enthralled by this story as it unfolded page by page. ( )

THE RIVER, BY MOONLIGHT by Camille Marchetta is a literary jewel set in 1917 New York with characters so clear you could pick them out of a crowd.This story begins a little after six in the morning when Henrietta Canning gets a disturbing call from NYPD Detective Malone. A lady has drowned in the Hudson River and the police believe it’s her twenty-five year old daughter, Lily. Once the identity is confirmed, the next concern for her family is whether this was an accident or suicide.As the people she left behind come to terms with this loss, we get to know Lily and what it must have been like to walk in her shoes. It won’t be until the last few pages that we understand completely what happened that fatal night at the Yacht Club.Marchetta's book would make the perfect book club read! Note: A copy of this book will be raffled off at http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/... ( )