Title: Cleaving
Description: Told in the authors' alternating voices, Cleaving is both the story and the understory of a marriage, unique in its particulars but universal in its resonance. Childhood acquaintances, Vicki and Dennis meet again in their twenties and wed. Like many of their generation, they "promise each other nothing" and get more than they'd bargained for: alcoholism, infidelity, infertility, uncertainty. Gradually, tumult gives way to sobriety, parenthood, and meaningful work, but a sense of yearning remains.

In a quest to root themselves in the larger world, they embark on a mission to hand-drill water wells in Central America, attempting to slake a spiritual thirst by addressing a practical need.
Subjects: American Novelists, Biography, Journalists, Marriage, Married people, Novelists, American, United States, Biography / Autobiography, 20th Century American Novel And Short Story, Specific Groups, Biography & Autobiography, Family/Marriage, Literary, Adventurers & Explorers, Religious, Specific Groups - General, 20th century, New York Times reviewed, American Women novelists
Places: United States
People: Dennis Covington, Vicki Covington
Time periods: 20th century