Peace Like A River

Synopses

Leif Enger's debut novel is a case study in intangibles. Each year, dozens of novels are published that have all their ducks in a row: in richly imagined worlds, their well-drawn characters struggle through compelling conflicts toward revealing conclusions. But very few contain that imperceptible extra that allows a story to speak directly to the reader's own longings, to infiltrate their consciousness and alter their perception of the world. In telling the story of his saintly father, fugitive brother, and precocious sister, Enger's narrator, an eleven-year-old asthmatic named Reuben Land, reveals a world in which the tragic is tempered by the miraculous, and faith leads inexorably to sacrifice -- and redemption. When it was first published in 2001, Peace Like a River was immediately championed by readers across the country and became a surprise bestseller. In 2002, it was chosen by independent booksellers as the Book Sense Book of the Year, and remains, today, one of the most popular book club selections in the country. Martin, Powells.com

Publisher Comments:

Leif Enger's rhapsodic novel about a father raising his three children in 1960s Minnesota is a breathtaking celebration of family, faith, and America's pioneering spirit. Through the voice of eleven-year-old Reuben, an asthmatic boy obsessed with cowboy stories, Peace Like a River tells of the Land family's cross-country search for Reuben's outlaw older brother, who has been controversially charged with murder. Sprinkled with playful and warmhearted nods to biblical tales, classic American novels such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River brilliantly incorporates the best elements of all these genres and ultimately earns its own prominent and enduring place on the shelf among them.

Reuben