Michael McDowell's Blackwater I: The Flood

Elinor Dammert is rescued from the Perdido Hotel four days after all the townspeople had abandoned their homes because of the flooding Blackwater River The mysterious saga of the Caskey family begins in Blackwater I: The Flood, as a devastating flood brings a strange and beautiful visitor to the small, sleepy lumber town of Perdido, Alabama. Elinor Dammert's arrival will forever change the town and the wealthy and powerful Caskey family. James, who dotes on Elinor like a second daughter... Sister, who pines for Elinors strength and independence... Oscar, who loves Elinor and determines to build a life with her... And matriarch Mary-Love, perhaps the only person in Perdido with an inkling of Elinors true power and purpose. For Elinor is more than she appears, and she brings to Perdidoand to the Caskeysa deadly, inexplicable otherness from which no one can ever be safe. At the crest of the worst flood in Perdido, Alabama's history, mysterious newcomer Elinor Dammert is rescued from the uppermost floor of an abandoned hotel. The town soon grows to love Elinor in spite of her unspoken past and her eccentric habits, and Oscar Caskey, head of the town's most powerful and influential family, soon takes her for his bride. But Oscar's mother, greedy and controlling Mary-Love Caskey, recognizes in Elinor a will as powerful as her own, and begins to suspect that Elinor's origins are more sinister than anyone can imagine. #1 in a six part novel entitled Blackwater