Like the Cedar River that constantly flows through the small northeastern Iowa town of Waverly as backdrop, the experience of growing up as a minister's daughter is the ever-present thread meandering through all the stories of Claimed. Each story ties past and present, pain and hope, endurance and fragility. Taken together, the stories in Claimed illustrate how the long view of adulthood sheds new poignant light on the writer's' childhood and her relationship with parents, sibling, extended family community, and, finally, herself. Ultimately, Claimed illumines the power of love and forgiveness and the often-circuitous route it takes to become known.