Flower in the River

<p>Martha Pfeiffer age 19 was one of 844 persons who perished when a ship chartered for the Western Electric annual picnic capsized in Chicago in 1915. Martha's surviving family members never recovered from their grief. The <em>Eastland </em>Disaster has been mostly overlooked in recent years.</p><p><br></p><p>In 1997 Pearl Pospisil a retired Chicago writer and third-generation Pfeiffer composed a family history and delivered it to her niece Zara Vrabel in St. Paul who was completely unfamiliar with its contents. Pearl had one request: Do something with this.</p><p><br></p><p>Zara also a journalist was cut off from her family and had no interest in genealogy. However learning of her great-aunt's death on the <em>Eastland</em> Disaster made Zara's heart sink.</p><p><br></p><p>Zara's life unravels as she becomes entangled in the plot and realizes that she and her great-aunt shared more than blood. After discovering that the accident was preventable Zara initially seeks redress. And the release of another Titanic movie poured salt on a fresh wound. So why was the<em> Eastland</em> consigned to oblivion while the <em>Titanic </em>got all the glory?</p><p><br></p><p><em>Flower in the River</em> interweaves the past and present of four generations of an Eastern-European immigrant family. It suggests that even an unknown trauma can affect a family for generations.</p>