Mysterious nineteenth-century letters found in the attic of her city brownstone lead Anna and her restless granddaughter, Emma, on a search to discover family secrets in the town of Griffin. To their surprise, the elusive town has all but vanished, reclaimed by the Adirondack forest. What was initially a larky jaunt becomes a puzzle. Anna and Emma's chance encounter with Miles, a lone fisherman on the bans of the East Branch near Griffin, quickly cascades into a series of unanticipated events. Who could have guessed that the mild bump of their worlds would knock Anna and Miles' lives off course?
The letters set in motion an unforeseen journey along the green verdant paths and rushing lucid streams sequestered in the backwoods of the Adirondacks. Some trails lead them further into the past; others beckon to a still-occluded future; and then there are promising byways leading nowhere—or, like mistaken deer trails, only divined by the silent furry creatures that live hidden in the forest. Anna's comfortable life as an Albany florist and Miles' simple lifestyle as an Adirondack woodsman are knocked askew by seemly innocent revelations. Can Anna and Miles escape from their time-hardened cocoons? What will Anna and Miles ultimately find in Griffin?
"In Finding Griffin, the past and present overlap with intriguing congruencies. Like photographic transparencies, sepia-toned suffragists are layered-over by color images of 1970s-era war protestors, the love-struck Luke of 19th-century Griffin foreshadows his 21st-century Vietnam Vet counterpart; a Victorian-era painter and a contemporary photographer are mesmerized by the same kaleidoscope of butterflies. Delaney shows us that throughout the changes in history there exist the constants that bind one generation to the next and lend meaning to each era's events."
—Persis Granger, author of Adirondack Gold
About the Author
Barbara Delaney has co-authored three books of nonfiction and written numerous magazine articles. She is a licensed New York State hiking guide who lives in Albany and the Adirondacks. Finding Griffin is Delaney's first novel.
