A tragic event can occur in no longer than a moment and produce a domino effect that can change everything in your life. The book "The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks contains such an event. This book has a modernized undertone of the folk tale "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning. This tale is carried throughout the books entirety. Both of these stories show connections in many ways and almost parallel one another in their basic plot of showing the painful effects disaster can have on a small town. While the people of Hamlin had the Piper to directly blame for their miseries, the people of Sam Dent did not.

Both stories are based on the loss of the children in a small town. In "The Pied Piper" the town's children are lost forever when the Pied Piper leads...