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Places

The Town at the Confluence

Where the valley ends and the only road leads

Twelve kilometers below Unterdorn, the Dorn flows into a larger river, and the valley stops being a valley. The only way there is the one state road along the water, across the one-lane bridge. At the speed of a bus full of children, the trip takes 40 minutes down and 40 minutes back up. For four years, the emergency assembly point has been at the confluence. Before that, it was at the school in Unterdorn, but the planners felt the school was too close to the water. Neither the town at the confluence nor the larger river is named in the book.

First encounter

• First noticed: Konrad’s description, “Down to the confluence, where the road stops being ours.”

Connected to

• Konrad ZieglerInnkeeper in Unterdorn and chief of the fire department
• Kai SörensenFS Nordmark captain, eight years without a word to Lena
• Lena VossOceanographer at the ICRU in Hamburg, following a falling line
• The DornA short, fast mountain river, dammed above a village
• UnterdornThe village below the dam, with one bridge out

Spoiler-free. This describes the starting point of the book named, without its major twists or resolutions.