Charlotte Rowe organizes messes for a living. She's darn good at it, but her orderly and controlled life leaves her wanting more. When an aged linguist contacts her, needing her assistance to save her grandfather's dying language, Charlotte sees an opportunity for adventure. But as soon as she meets Dr. Will Mayfair, the other linguist on the project, she realizes she's in over her head. Her research partner is far younger and sexier than she'd been led to expect. As if that isn't enough to shake her up, they are forced to work in a remote Caucasus village where local political tensions are on the rise. Charlotte and Will race to translate a rare document, but their work is stymied by the subtext of attraction whispering beneath every word they say. Then war breaks out and a tragic ordeal sends both their lives into a tailspin. Like the hero of the mythological tale they study, they are forced to battle for love and healing, and make a perilous journey back from the edge of the earth.

Aching Melodies resonates with a yearning for the lost world, the loss of a green past ravaged by the onslaught of man, time, and technology. There is a bold exploration of the grim realities of the day- atrocities committed against nature, women, and helpless humanity. We hear the anguished cry of helpless victims caught up in an earthquake or in a reckless bombing. There is the poignant predicament of a woman who is threatened by the shadow that can jump on her in an unguarded moment and, of course, the ultimate victimization wherein she turns out to be just another statistical casualty. The free verse straddles between memory and nostalgia. The contours of subjectivity create a ripple effect on the reader's psyche. The local becomes the universal. Here is a worldview that encompasses all-the mind that grows co extensive with the universe, accommodating the flora and fauna, the man, the animal, and the bird. Listen to the voice of humanity in Aching Melodies.