In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back streets — that has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth — recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he presents a lyrical and ceaselessly exciting shipboard perspective on the country and its streams, lakes, canals, and scenery. Brimming with history, drama, and knowledge, River-Horse belongs in the pantheon of American travel literature.

In his most about River Horse: A Voyage Across America ambitious journey ever, Heat-Moon sets off aboard a little motorboat he named Nikawa (‘river horse’ in Osage) in the Atlantic at New York Harbor hoping of getting into the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon. He and his partner, Pilotis, struggle to cover some five thousand watery kilometers — more than some other cross-country river traveller has ever handled — often following in the wakes of our most well-known explores, from Henry Hudson to Lewis and Clark.

En route, the voyagers confront massive floods, submerged rocks, dangerous weather, and their own doubts about whether they can complete the trip. But the hard days yield up matchless pleasures: strangers generous with help and eccentric tales, landscapes unchanged since Sacagawea noticed them, riverscapes moving with a exciting past, as well as the developing belief that initiatives to protect our lands and waters are starting to pay back. And, throughout its program, the expedition enjoys coincidences so breathtaking concerning suggest the intervention of the divine and witty Providence.

Teeming with humanity and high experience, Heat-Moon’s account is an unsentimental and original arteriogram of our nation at the edge of the Millennium.