Summary and Reviews of The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton

The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton

The Wind Is Not a River

by Brian Payton
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  • First Published:
  • Jan 7, 2014, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2014, 320 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

The Wind Is Not a River is Brian Payton's gripping tale of survival and an epic love story in which a husband and wife - separated by the only battle of World War II to take place on American soil - fight to reunite in Alaska's starkly beautiful Aleutian Islands.

Following the death of his younger brother in Europe, journalist John Easley is determined to find meaning in his loss. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Helen, he heads north to investigate the Japanese invasion of Alaska's Aleutian Islands, a story censored by the U.S. government. 

While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is shot down over the island of Attu. He survives only to find himself exposed to a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, known as "the birthplace of winds." There, John must battle the elements, starvation, and his own remorse while evading discovery by the Japanese.

Alone at home, Helen struggles with the burden of her husband's disappearance. Caught in extraordinary circumstances, in this new world of the missing, she is forced to reimagine who she is - and what she is capable of doing. Somehow, she must find John and bring him home, a quest that takes her into the farthest reaches of the war, beyond the safety of everything she knows.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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The Wind Is Not a River will likely spark readers' interest in a remote part of the world and in a little-known chapter of World War II history even as it tells a memorable story about the power of love and the will to survive...continued

Full Review (546 words)

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(Reviewed by Norah Piehl).

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Beyond the Book



Battle of the Aleutian Islands

In The Wind Is Not A River, the protagonist, journalist John Easley, finds himself on the Aleutian island of Attu in April 1943, when the Battle of the Aleutian Islands is taking place.

We've all heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the precipitating event that led the United States to fight in World War II. But perhaps we might not be as familiar with the Battle of the Aleutian Islands that took place from June 1942 to August 1943 – the only WWII campaign to be fought on U.S. soil. Possibly due to an embargo on information from the Alaskan front, it was overshadowed by the more dramatic war stories from Europe and the South Pacific. This might explain why the long struggle to reclaim two American ...

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