The river : a novel

Title:

The river : a novel

Author:

Heller, Peter, 1959- author.

Personal Author:

Heller, Peter, 1959- author.

ISBN:

9780525521877

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

253 pages : illustration ; 22 cm

Abstract:

"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 paddles 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?"--Provided by publisher.

Subject Term:

Canoes and canoeing -- Fiction.

Wildfires -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Canada, Northern -- Fiction.

Genre:

Action and adventure fiction.

Suspense fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	FICTION HELLER	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Broad Rock	Book	FICTION HELLER	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	FICTION HELLER	Searching... Unknown
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Summary

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars comes the story of two college students on a wilderness canoe trip--a gripping tale of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence.

"A fiery tour de force ... I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful."-- The Denver Post

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since college 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.

One night, with the fire advancing, they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank; the next day, a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the same 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.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Two college friends' leisurely river trek becomes an ordeal of fire and human malice.For his fourth novel, Heller swaps the post-apocalyptic setting of his previous book, The Dog Stars (2012), for present-day realismin this case a river in northern Canada where Dartmouth classmates Jack and Wynn have cleared a few weeks for fly-fishing and whitewater canoeing. Jack is the sharp-elbowed scion of a Colorado ranch family, while Wynn is a more easygoing Vermontera divide that becomes more stark as the novel progressesbut they share a love of books and the outdoors. They're so in sync early on that they agree to lose travel time to turn back and warn a couple they'd overheard arguing that a forest fire is fast approaching. It's a fateful decision: They discover the woman, Maia, near death and badly injured, apparently by her homicidal husband, Pierre. When Wynn unthinkingly radios Pierre that she's been found alive, Wynn and Jack realize they're now targets as well. Heller confidently manages a host of tensionsJack and Wynn becoming suspicious of each other while watching for Pierre, straining to keep Maia alive, and paddling upriver to reach civilization and escape the nearing blaze. And his pacing is masterful as well, briskly but calmly capturing the scenery in slower moments, then running full-throttle and shifting to barreling prose when danger is imminent. (The fire sounds like "turbines and the sudden shear of a strafing plane, a thousand thumping hooves in cavalcade, the clamor and thud of shields clashing, the swelling applause of multitudes.") And though the tale is a familiar one of fending off the deadliness of the wilderness and one's fellow man, Heller has such a solid grasp of nature (both human and the outdoors) that the storytelling feels fresh and affecting. In bringing his characters to the brink of death (and past it), Heller speaks soberly to the random perils of everyday living.An exhilarating tale delivered with the pace of a thriller and the wisdom of a grizzled nature guide. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.