Shadow Falls by Amy Ryan
Shadow Falls by Amy Ryan, graduate, the MFA in Creative Writing at The New School.
Delacorfe Press, 2005
In her grandfather’s bright Wyoming valley surrounded by the mighty Tetons, 15-year-old Annie McGraw wanders a forest of shadows. She and her older brother, Cody, always spent the summers here—Cody scaling the cliff walls with Grandpa, Annie tracking Yellowstone moose with her camera. But after the phone call, the valley, like the rest of Annie’s world, feels drained of color.
Annie wishes the summer could pass like a night of dreamless sleep—until a grizzly bear finds her on the riverbank. The bear spares her life, but it has a message for her. Suddenly Annie isn’t sure how she feels about anything. Like signs in a dark forest, strangers emerge along her path—a handsome guy with a dangerous smile, a little boy wise beyond his years, the man in the Teepee Tree. Even Grandpa, always so solid and distant, seems to hold secrets behind his icy blue eyes. Struggling under the weight of her grief, Annie begins to follow the signs, and to hear the grizzly’s message.