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Book Reviewed by: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.
The River offers both a literal and figurative journey; it is a thrilling and contemplative page-turner with sharp insight into the human condition. Heller's pace rushes the reader along, parallel to how Jack and Wynn are rushed down the river. The novel is excellent and comes to a moving, emotionally-charged conclusion...continued
Full Review
(569 words)
(Reviewed by Adrienne Pisch).
The River sets college students Jack and Wynn in a race against a forest fire as they canoe down the Maskwa River to the Hudson Bay with little chance of rescue. In recent years there has been an uptick in the number, severity and duration of forest fires, likely due to climate change (See Escalating Wildfires in the Western U.S.), so it is more important than ever to be aware of safety protocols.
Four out of five wildfires are started by humans, whether through tossing a cigarette out a car window, downed power lines, arson or not properly dousing a campfire. Natural ignition occurs most frequently because of lightning strikes. There are three elements a wildfire requires: heat, oxygen and fuel; this means that drought and warm weather ...
If you liked The River, try these:
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