Franny is the youngest of three daughters, and at thirteen, she is just beginning to see her family, and the world as they truly exist. Rowing in Eden tells the story, through Franny’s eyes, of one summer at Pynch Lake, the midwestern resort where the family has gone for generations, and now lives full time in somewhat reduced financial circumstances.

Franny, caught in that strange hinterland between childhood and adolescence, becomes increasingly entwined in the lives of her older sisters. She is their confidant, but is too young to drink and attend the nightly parties by the lake. She is too young to have an ever changing string of boyfriends. She is too young to fall truly in love, isn’t she And then she meets Ryan Marvel, an eighteen-year-old college freshman. Like Beth Gutcheon, Elizabeth Evans paints a masterful portrait of adolescence and a powerful, if unusual, love story.