The Stone Circle: A Symbol of Grief, Connection, and Hope in Go as a River

The Stone Circle as a Ritual of Grief

In Shelley Read’s Go as a River, the stone circle begins as a private act of mourning. Six years after giving birth to her son in a mountain clearing and leaving him with a stranger, Victoria Nash returns to the exact spot. Overcome with raw, animal grief, she decides to gather six smooth stones and arrange them into a perfect circle atop a jagged boulder—one stone for each year since her child’s birth. This annual ritual becomes her only way to honor the son she never knew, to mark his existence, and to anchor her love in a tangible, physical form. The stones transform the empty clearing into a sacred altar where Victoria can speak to her child and offer birthday blessings.

A Recurring Act Across the Years

The stone circle recurs throughout the novel, marking time and Victoria’s emotional journey. From 1955 to 1962, she returns each summer to add another stone, building the circle stone by stone (see the theme of memory and place). In 1962, she places a thirteenth stone but discovers a round, peach-shaped rock left in the center by unknown visitors. The footprints suggest a woman and a child—Inga Tate and Lukas. In 1970, Victoria finds a sealed plastic bag containing Inga’s letter, which reveals Lukas’s name and history. The circle becomes a meeting point across time, an unintended bridge between two mothers. Inga’s narrative shows Lukas at age twelve counting twelve stones and placing his own peach-shaped rock, intuitively connecting to his birth mother’s ritual. Later, after reading Inga’s pages, Victoria presses her palms upon the circle, hoping the accumulated longing will guide her.

Evolving Meaning: From Private Monument to Shared Connection

The stone circle’s meaning deepens as the story progresses. At first, it is a solitary monument to an absent child—an attempt to make loss tangible. Over the years, it becomes a place of quiet dialogue with the other mother and the son. When the peach-shaped rock appears, the circle represents an unspoken conversation: two mothers leaving markers for each other. For Inga, the circle prompts her to reveal the truth about Lukas’s origins. For Victoria, it transforms from an altar of grief into a beacon of hope. The circle’s stones accumulate not only years but also the longing, prayers, and love of everyone connected to the baby. In the epilogue, the river and the land itself echo this accumulated meaning: Victoria learns that joy and pain do not wash away. The stone circle, like the river, gathers pieces and endures.

Character and Theme Connections

The stone circle is central to Victoria’s character arc of resilience and survival. It captures her refusal to forget or move on, her commitment to honoring what she has lost. Through the ritual, she connects to the themes of motherhood and identity—the simultaneous emptiness and fullness of being a mother who gave her child away. For Inga, the circle becomes a confession booth; she later writes that she hopes the “Forest Mother” will help Lukas find himself. The circle also ties into love and sacrifice, as both women sacrifice their own needs for the child. The presence of Wilson Moon’s spirit, the father, haunts Victoria’s visits; she imagines his face in Lukas’s. The circle also links to prejudice and injustice, as Wilson’s murder by Victoria’s brother-in-law forced her to give up the baby in the first place. The stone circle ultimately embodies the theme that becoming takes time, as Victoria reflects when she sits in the layered forest floor and realizes she has been shaped by every person and place.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Victoria choose to place stones in a circle rather than another shape?
The circle represents wholeness, continuity, and the cyclical nature of grief and hope. Each stone marks a year, but the circular arrangement suggests connection without end—much like the river that flows around obstacles. It also mirrors the natural cycles of seasons and growth that Victoria observes in her orchard and the wilderness.

2. How does the stone circle change after Inga and Lukas discover it?
Initially a private monument, the circle becomes a shared symbol. The peach-shaped rock left by Lukas transforms it into an exchange between two families. When Victoria later reads Inga’s letter, the circle becomes a place of revelation and mutual understanding. It evolves from an expression of loss into a trace of connection across time.

3. In what way does the stone circle parallel Victoria’s relationship with the land?
Victoria’s annual visits to the clearing mirror her tending of the peach orchard. Both require patience, faith, and the willingness to return year after year. Just as she transplants trees to a new farm and nurtures them, she transplants her grief into a ritual that can grow and change. The circle becomes a rooted part of the landscape, like the orchard she cultivates.

4. What does the stone circle reveal about the theme of memory and place?
The stone circle anchors memory to a specific location—the mountain clearing where Victoria left her son. As Iola is drowned by the reservoir, the clearing endures, becoming a sacred site where the past remains accessible. The stones are tangible evidence that what happened was not a dream. The circle demonstrates that place can hold memory and that revisiting a site allows healing across decades. For Lukas, discovering the circle gives him a physical link to his origins, long before he learns the truth.