The Shallows of Jabbok, a work of historical fiction, takes place among settlers on the Montana prairie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mrs. Rainwater made a brief appearance in Kent Elliott's first novel, I've Seen Dry. She has a story she needs to tell. The story comes out of its times and places that set a context for what is said and what is left unsaid. She would like us to hear the whole story. She remembers and tells it until we are able to hear and to understand, even the parts she will not say out loud. The Shallows of Jabbok invites the reader to visit folks along Jabbok Creek who found ways to live and love, to survive or succumb, doing the best they could -- sometimes well, sometimes painfully, sometimes fatally. Mrs. Rainwater tells the story of her life in a sparsely populated region. It is a story of love and of an absence of love that is not hate; of sorrow and joy; of loss and fulfillment. You are invited to join Pastor Wil on Mrs. Rainwater's screen porch. Come on in. Listen and imagine with him as Mrs. Rainwater takes us from Scotland to Jabbok Creek.