After years of rubbing elbows with Austin's elite, Sunday Frederick jumps at the chance to escape the concrete jungle and practice natural medicine in her beloved hometown. But returning to the sleepy East Texas community of Old Salem with a fast-talking fiancé in tow proves more of a challenge than she ever expected as she struggles to balance his ambitions with the best interests of her family and the surrounding community. When a wildcrafting assignment plunges her into the swampy, mosquito-infested river bottom of her youth-and face-to-face with local rebel, Eli LeBlanc-Sunday finds herself torn between everything she thought she wanted and everything she can't live without. Told in an authentic Southern voice, Backwater is that rare breed of novel that will please every type of reader while shining light on the struggle of rural communities everywhere to retain not only their cultural identity, but the environment on which it depends.