Song by the River

Song by the River by Gerstner, Edna. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781573580403.

The author’s skill weaves a beautiful story around the lives of three people - Dr. Robert Townsend, his wife Marjorie, and nurse Charis Brown - isolated in a jungle mission, and sharply characterized against the pagan setting of Indian native life. This is the story of a triangle, consisting of the missionary doctor, a nurse who was born on the mission field, and the doctor’s wife. Tense conflict develops between doctor and nurse, the nurse not wanting to show her love for him, and the doctor fighting her appeal. The doctors wife is a selfish girl who slowly but surely becomes a woman. In the struggle for faith, in the stark realism, in the entangling problems, each finally realizes the contentment found in the Great Healer, the One for whom they labor as they work with the natives of the village.