The River and the Book / Alison Croggon

In Simbalas village they have two treasures: the River, which is their road and their god and the Book, which is their history, their oracle and their soul. Simbala is a Keeper of the Book, the latest in a long line of women who can use it to find answers to the villagers questions. As developers begin to poison the River on which the villagers rely, the Book predicts change. But this does not come in the form that they expect it is the sympathetic foreigner who comes to the village who inflicts the greatest damage of all...