The world is fraying. Art is disappearing. And one woman sets out on the river before everything changes forever. A few years into the future, society is unraveling. Violence is rising. The aftermath of a devastating pandemic still lingers. And across the country, a phenomenon known only as the Vanishing is causing people and works of art to disappear without explanation. Cassie Navrone, a widowed retired teacher with silver braids and a restless spirit, takes a job piloting a luxury houseboat called the Silver Lady downriver to its owner. What begins as a long-awaited escape soon becomes something stranger: a journey through a world tilting out of balance. On board are five fellow travelers—artists, poets, lovers, and drifters—each carrying private griefs, secrets, and reasons for boarding the boat. As the river unfolds, so do eerie landscapes, dreamlike encounters, unsettling towns, pirates, storms, and glimpses of another reality just beyond the visible one. But as the voyage grows more surreal, Cassie must do more than keep the boat afloat. She must hold together a fragile crew, face the life she left behind, and decide whether the river is carrying them toward safety, transformation…or something they may never fully understand. Lyrical, strange, and deeply human, Silver Lady is a magical realism novel about survival, reinvention, art, and the mystery waiting around the next bend. "Sage has crafted a unique near-future, post-pandemic world where Art is vanishing and the world is chaotic. The Silver Lady drifts downriver in a dreamlike state, slipping through time and reality, past and present, in a world with ever-changing rules, making you question what is real..." —Lena Gibson, author of The Edge of Life: Love and Survival During the Apocalypse "Sage has crafted a unique near-future, post-pandemic world where Art is vanishing and the world is chaotic. The Silver Lady drifts downriver in a dreamlike state, slipping through time and reality, past and present, in a world with ever-changing rules, making you question what is real..." -Lena Gibson, author of The Edge of Life: Love and Survival During the Apocalypse "This delightfully enchanting river tale, full of woe and wonder, will keep you guessing what lives around the next bend. I often caught my breath at Susan Sage's bright, lyrical writing." -Milana Marsenich, author of Shed Girl "You can always count on Susan Sage to create characters with a few fascinating flaws, interacting in a setting both realistic and mysterious, to keep you reading late into the night." -Sandra Sperling, author of The Stash "An amazing woman's struggle to make sense of a world gone horribly wrong and a dose of magical realism combine to make a river voyage on the Silver Lady a trip worth taking." -Gail Ward Olmsted, author of the Miranda Quinn Legal Twist series "Close the door, turn off the TV, and send the kids to grandmas. Once you board the Silver Lady , you will find yourself on a surreal journey into a possible and not too distant future. Capt. Cassie Navrone skillfully steers us through a world damaged by our recent past in such way as to give insight and hope. As she navigates the watery River Road, Cassie takes us on a deceptively slow ride on a river full of reflection, mystery, and mystique." -Gin Coleman, author of Desert Brave Susan Sage has published three other novels. Her novel Dancing in the Ring was a Silver Finalist in the 2023 American Writing Awards. For several years, Susan taught English at an adult-alternative high school and was a reading tutor for at-risk students. She is ever proud of her grown daughter and enjoys exploring small towns she's never visited before, star-gazing, bicycling, and wine tastings. Although a Detroit native, she has resided most of her adult life in Flushing, Michigan with her husband and two cats.