The Returning

It is the summer of 1951 in Kansas City, six years following the end of World War II. The worst flood of the century is about to happen, but eleven-year-old Sara Johnson and the rest of her neighbors along Southwest Boulevard have no idea of the impending disaster. Sara clings to the belief that haer father, missing in action since the battle of Iwo Jima, will return to her. She finds a kindred spirit in her friend, Nathalie Springer, a Jewish refugee from France, whose uncle owns the bookstore down the street. The two girls, with the help of a mysterious book and its author, Aaron Fishchel, explore the idea of soul transference, where people are reborn into the body of someone else. The reason for their interest is connected to the new pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Reverend Emmett Bell looks amazingly like Sara's daddy, and he was there on Iwo Jima, but his severe wounds obscured some of his features and left him with amnesia. Is it possible the new minister is actually Sara's father, or Sara's father in the body of Emmett Bell? The coincidences add up and the idea tantalizes the girls, but their investigation leads to heartbreak and division in their families, among the neighbors and their new minister. The folks who live on Southwest Boulevard want to bury physical and emotional wounds suffered during the war. Sara's questions go too far. What is God's plan for the hereafter? It might be unexplainable to the folks who live on Southwest Boulevard in Rosedale, Kansas, but not to an eleven-year-old girl, who proves that love can cross all boundaries, including death.