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Is a man the sum of what comes his way, or does he make his own way and shape what comes?

It is 1930 in a hardscrabble western Pennsylvania town where for over 100 years life has revolved around the rough labor of mining and burning of coal to make the “coke” feeding the Pittsburg steel mills.

Dan, the oldest of seven children growing up on River Avenue, is the quiet peacekeeper in his family, close to his mother and staying out of the way of his domineering father. 

Their father prides himself on having gotten out of the mines, the house on River Avenue a testament to his success. Now a gas company foreman with social position, he lives on the road for weeks at a time supervising crews laying pipe across outlying counties.

Dan’s emotional center is his loving but distracted mother. Her three boys and four girls rely on the daily steadiness of her parents, Grandma and Papaw. When she deteriorates in grief after the death of her five-year-old son, Dan supports his mother’s slow efforts to rejoin their family life. On the day he is most hopeful for her recovery, she disappears.

Dan struggles to hold life together for his siblings as he seeks answers about his mother. When Dan uncovers devastating secrets his parents kept from each other, he must confront their tyrant father. Older Dan reflects on the life-altering choices he made and the man he became to save his family.

RIVER AVENUE is a story of finding your strength when the beliefs we hold about relationships among brothers, sisters, parents, and grandparents are forever changed.