Staff Pick
Peter Heller writes a tale so riveting, it's hard to keep from flying through the pages, but his prose is so beautiful, you want to linger much longer with it. Best friends Jack and Wynn take a trip canoeing, camping, and fishing along the Maskwa River — it's their favorite activity with their favorite person, and it starts out perfectly. But they soon discover a rampant forest fire is racing up behind them, and yet, that is only the beginnings of the trouble on this supposedly idyllic trip. Heller picks apart themes of friendship, survival, terror, and both the dark and light sides of human nature. This beautifully written tale delivers a map of friendship, a prescription for survival, and an illuminating look into human nature at its most raw and vulnerable. Just gorgeous. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A BookPage 2019 Most Anticipated Book
A LitHub 2019 Most Anticipated Book
From the bestselling author of The Dog Stars, the story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip — a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.
Review
“Urgent, visceral writing — I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. A beautiful, heartrending exploration of male friendship.” Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of Let Me Lie
Review
“A fiery tour de force….[The River] recalls his debut, The Dog Stars, with its poetic, staccato sentences and masterfully crafted prose….The story itself resembles a trip down a river — some parts are peaceful and allow for quiet introspection and big, deep breaths. But then you hit the rapids and the danger and risk jump off the page, forcing a sense of urgency. In those thrilling parts, reading required self-discipline. I wanted to know what happened so badly that I’d read too fast and had to retrace my steps to savor Heller’s storytelling. And what a story he tells….I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful.” Alison Borden, The Denver Post
Review
“As much an allegory about man’s impact on the Earth as it is an adventure story….Heller’s prose is at its best when he’s describing the natural world. His sometimes short, clipped sentences unfurl into long, lyrical lines, each syllable stretching toward near-poetry as he describes the landscapes. Heller’s melodious renderings are drawn from a lifetime of not just witnessing nature, but of actively paying attention to how it is woven together.” Kasey Cordell, 5280 Magazine
Review
“Using an artist’s eye to describe Jack and Wynn’s wilderness world, Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Heller has transformed his own outdoor experiences into a heart-pounding adventure that’s hard to put down.” Library Journal (Starred Review)
Synopsis
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A fiery tour de force... I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful." -Alison Borden, The Denver Post
From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, the story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip--a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? From this charged beginning, master storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding story of desperate wilderness survival.
About the Author
Peter Heller is the national bestselling author of Celine, The Painter, and The Dog Stars. The Painter was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the prestigious Reading the West Book Award, shared in the past by Western writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Terry Tempest Williams, and The Dog Stars, which was published to critical acclaim and lauded as a breakout bestseller, has been published in 22 languages to date. Heller is also the author of four nonfiction books, including Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave, which was awarded the National Outdoor Book Award for Literature.
He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in poetry and fiction and lives in Denver, Colorado.
Peter Heller on PowellsBooks.Blog
When I was 17, I fell in love. It was at a little boarding school in southern Vermont and Margaret was from a hamlet at the edge of the White Mountains. She was a country girl and an equestrienne, used to walking to barn chores before sunrise when the stars were sprays of ice chips and her boots squeaked on the packed snow...
Read More»