A Confluence of Rivers

What is it like to love someone you’ve never met?
Katherine’s gripping true story tells how a chance connection at the dawn of the internet age deepened into companionship – through email correspondence alone – and became a heart-enveloping romance that crossed an ocean.

For more than two decades, she stored the memories not just in her heart but in a beat-up old office box, stashed away with their hundreds of printed emails, the remains of an epistolary love story that ultimately forced her to find a path through heartbreak. She never dared to reopen the box – until now.

A real-life chronicle unfolding like a novel, her improbable adventure begins with a simple tech support request. Before dating apps, before social media, the random digital encounter would culminate in a European rendezvous she could never forget. And yet…

Memory sometimes smooths rough edges, blurs details difficult to face. Now, with mysteries to resolve and emotions to confront, Katherine invites readers along as she cracks open the cardboard treasure chest to relive the exhilarating and painful episode. The old emails unearth startling discoveries, bringing to light pieces of the story and of herself that had become obscured.

A Confluence of Rivers will inspire you to reflect on life-chapters you yourself have long sealed away. What might it cost – and give back – for you to finally reopen them?

The memoirist shares her intensely vulnerable yet relatable narrative with unsparing candor and an uplifting touch. Her story is sure to captivate those who love to witness the unfurling of romance or who wax nostalgic for 1980s and ‘90s pop music and technology.

If you’ve ever loved deeply or wondered about your own memories, expect Katherine’s voice to stay with you long after the last page.

An essayist and music lover living in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Katherine is fascinated by life's lyrical absurdities as well as its patterns and throughlines that connect us as humans. Before beginning work on A Confluence of Rivers: A Memoir Through Digital Love Letters, she wrote essays since 2014 for her blog (ahansenchronicle.com). See her author website at: KatherineSHansen.com.