As her name implies, Sara Will survive and endure! Some might call Sara Will an old maid; indeed, she is an older woman, probably in her late fifties, and she has never been married.

She is more a product of the past than the present. It is as though Sara Will's life has been frozen in time, since the death of her sister, Serena. Bridgers describes Sara Will's outdated clothing, car, and lifestyle and makes the reader keenly aware that Sara Will does not like modern "conveniences" and change. Sara Will's goal and unthwarted ambition seems to be to get an access bridge and road built to Serena's grave. She is consumed in a battle to get the TVA, who routed the river through the family cemetery, to build the bridge and road.

Sara lives with her other sister, Swanee Hope, in the run-down...