Jonis Agee imagines criminal life on the Mississippi

Author Jonis Agee's new novel, "The River Wife," actually tells the story of several wives, five generations of women who live on a piece of land on the Mississippi River in southern Missouri.

For each of them it's an uncertain life, buffeted by lawlessness on the river, the Civil War and then Prohibition.

Agee now lives in Nebraska. But she grew up in Missouri, and later taught in Minnesota for two decades.

MPR's Euan Kerr talked with Agee about her latest book. She said "The River Wife" began when she was doing research on earthquakes that devastated the New Madrid area of Missouri in 1811.

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