A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

‘A fiery tour de power… I possibly could not put this publication down. It really was terrifying and unutterably beautiful.’ –Alison Borden, The Denver Post

From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars, the storyplot of two university students on a wilderness canoe trip–a gripping tale of the friendship tested by fireplace, white water, and violence

Wynn and Jack have been close friends since freshman orientation, bonded simply by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn can be a gentle large, about The River: A novel a Vermont child never more happy than when his foot are in the water. Jack port is more tough, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping beneath the superstars and cooking on the open fire came as normally to him as respiration. When they opt to canoe the Maskwa River in north 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 towards the journey. When they hear a man and girl arguing for the fog-shrouded riverbank and opt to warn them about the fireplace, their search for the pair arises nothing and no one. But: The very next day a man appears within the river, paddling only. Is this the man they noticed? And, if he is, where may be the woman? From this charged beginning, professional storyteller Peter Heller unspools a headlong, heart-pounding tale of eager wilderness survival.