Three generations torn apart by time and currents, spread from the Philippine Islands in World War II to an unplanned stop along the Mississippi chitlin circuit to a true World of Rivers that brings everything together that has fallen apart. The Big Easy, half-truth and half-illusion, proves that life is bigger than we ever could have imagined, but it's never particularly easy. WORLD OF RIVERS is unlike any book I have ever written. Perhaps it is most like Constellations, for it is also a travelogue of sorts, a trip downriver in a metaphysical and sometimes physical sense. It is a three-generation tale of a family disconnected. It’s also about the things that connect us all. The first part is based very loosely on my granddaddy’s experience as a young soldier in World War II Philippines. Loosely because the bones of the story are much his. I merely fleshed it out differently. At the end of the war, Corporal Clifton Grice comes back home and leaves Corporal Bluford Thorn to continue. I’ll talk more about the specifics of this part of the story later. Parts two and three unfolded slowly and majestically, like the Mississippi River that they follow. Part three came in a flash of inspiration, a complete surprise to me. Four led me to its dramatic conclusion in a way I had not prepared for. I was truly being pulled along by the currents. The ending thrilled me, not only giving the characters a chance to follow their own threads, but to pull those threads together in a great tapestry. And it even handed me the title. What else could I ask for