When the Hill Came Down
Keefe Williams lives a childhood of neglect and disconnect, feeling completely invisible. Known only for the story of the night his parents died and the freak event that killed them, he suffers silently holding on to the one thing in his life that sets him apart. When Keefe is a teenager Summer Barkley moves to the community. She is oblivious to the entrenched story of Keefe Williams’s life, giving him an opportunity to finally be someone separate from his tragic past. As their relationship develops, Keefe can claim his true identity.
Through Keefe’s art and Summer’s writing the need to truly explore and understand the past becomes something from which they cannot run. When the Hill Came Down explores greed, jealousy, love, loyalty and the very fabric of a community full of stories whose threads intertwine. The colour, texture and multi-faceted of any story in any community, bear scrutiny. Nothing is ever exactly the way it seems.
Ms. White writes good stories, and When the Hill Came Down is no exception. Her storytelling has a natural seriousness about it; very grounded, with characters that could well be drawn from real life. The situations that the protagonists (and even the antagonists like Keefe’s Uncle Tom) encounter are full of life lessons, making her stories trustworthy and wholesome.