The River: A novel

Written by Peter Heller

Narrated by Mark Deakins

A Nominee for the 2020 Edgar Allan Poe Awards

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"A fiery tour de force… I could not put this book down. It truly was terrifying and unutterably beautiful." –Alison Borden, The Denver Post

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984839923

Peter Heller

Peter Heller is an award-winning adventure writer and long-time contributor to NPR. He is a contributing editor at Outside magazine and National Geographic Adventure and the author of Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet's Tsangpo River. He lives in Denver, Colorado. He can be reached at PeterHeller.net.

[Peter Walsh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Satisfying read overall but had some unsatisfying plot issues toward the end.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jack and Wynn are best friends, having met in college. They decide to spend weeks canoeing a river in northern Canada and living off the land, spending lazy days and nights in nature. They meet 2 creepy men, and warn them that a wildfire is headed their way. Later, they hear a couple arguing, but only see the man the next day. They rescue the woman who was abused by her husband. Their efforts to save her result in tragedy for the friends and their trip.
A vivid story detailing the beauty and stark reality of nature, the bonds of friendship, and the dangers in our world. I'll think about this book for a while. Very well done.

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two best friends take a canoe trip on a wild, northern river that goes horribly awry. The writing is beautiful, although very technical at times with respect to fishing techniques and canoe paddling procedures. Suspenseful and heart-pounding. Good book!

[flowercreek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The language and feeling in this book was a true gift. It immerses you in the experience, first in the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, then in the growing tensions. When the fire came, I had to force myself to slow my reading pace...the words were pulling me ahead so fast I was barely seeing them.

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listed to the audiobook format (I love Mark Deacon's narration).

The River is about two college buddies on a canoe trip in Northern Canada. They encounter a wildfire and a small cast of other characters that add urgency and danger to their trip. The nature writing is beautiful and though the plot is thin at times, it definitely picks up near the end. Ultimately it is a heart-wrenching tale of friendship and survival against the backdrop of a beautiful but threatening wilderness.

[junipersun · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two men paddling down a river doesn't sound like it'll be much of a book, but add in a wildfire, a woman who has been found beaten insensible and you will have what might be a standard action novel. I the hands of Heller, though, it becomes more. This is a paean to river paddling in the north woods. This is a study (contrasts and compare) of a strong and trusting friendship between two white men from opposite sides of this country.
I'm sure I'll want to read this again, even tho I will no longer have the suspense of an unknown ending.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The setting for the story is a river in northern Canada where classmates Jack and Wynn, have gone to do some fly-fishing and whitewater canoeing. Jack and Wynn come from different backgrounds but are fast friends. Jack is a hard-working guy whose home is a Colorado ranch. Wynn is a more easygoing Vermont native. These differences become more obvious and important as the story moves forward. What they have in common is they share a love of books and the outdoors. Early on in their trip they agree turn back and warn a man and woman that they’d overheard arguing, that a forest fire is fast approaching. This decision to be helpful turns out to be one of the most fateful decisions that they have ever made. They discover a woman, Maia, near death and badly injured, apparently by her homicidal husband, Pierre. When Wynn unthinkingly radios Pierre that his "missing" wife had been found alive, Wynn and Jack realize they’re now in real and deadly danger. Jack and Wynn even become suspicious of each other while watching for Pierre and desperately trying to keep Maia alive...all the while paddling upriver to reach civilization and escape the ever-nearing fire. They can hear the fire which sounds to them like "a multitude of roaring turbines or the sudden shear of a plane, or a thousand thumping hooves, the thud of shields clashing, or the loud applause of multitudes….” The characters are several times brought to the brink of death. The ending portion of the story is a total shock. By this time, we have learned that in life justice can be an elusive thing and difficult and sometimes, impossible to control.

[judygibson-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. I resisted reading this for a long time though I kept hearing it recommended on What Should I Read Next, until I heard an interview with the author himself. Because it's totally not my genre: outdoor adventure, canoeing and fishing. Two friends on a canoe trip fleeing an approaching forest fire while trying to evacuate a badly injured woman and evading various creepy humans. How can such a heart pounding adventure include so many lyrical interludes of joy in the Canadian wilderness and deep friendship? Again, wow.

[cassprout · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful book! The descriptions are so beautiful and accurate. Excellent character development through subtle interactions. Just enough action to keep the story going. A perfect novel in every way.

[dawnlovesbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Two friends set out in canoes on a river adventure and too late discover there is a raging forest fire ahead of them. They also stumble across a cast of troubling characters and they face many challenges on their journey. Author does an amazing job of creating a setting that is a huge character itself. I found it a bit dull at times, but there were some thrilling moments that made up for the dull parts. The action picks up just like the pace of the river. If you like adventure in nature stories, then this book is for you.

[maydacat_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a five-star book for me, right up to the near end, when I had a hard time believing what happened, really happened. Sometimes I just want to shake the author and yell, “Why did you do that? What were you thinking?” This is one of those stories. It’s a great tale of two friends who go on a canoeing trip. They hear what sounds like an argument between a man and a woman, and then the woman ends up missing. Now, it’s not only two guys against nature, but it’s also two guys against other men. Who can you trust? And who should you fear? I enjoyed the descriptions of the trip and of the hardships that they encountered, including the unexpected wildfire. Each man had his own strengths that he brought to the trip, and it was interesting to see how well they worked together. And what a great time they were having, until they didn’t. Argh! I still hate the ending, but this well-written book is worth reading if you like gritty adventure stories.

[janerawoof · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Two college friends embark on a canoe trip down a river and try to escape a raging wildfire, dangers of the river, and someone trying to ambush them. They also find and bring with them an injured woman. The best parts of the book were the nature descriptions and those of the wildfire.

[ellenh_28 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked the writing, the character development and almost all of the river trip. I sort of skipped about 1/8 of the descriptives although the wilderness and survival were intense beautifully done! The suspense was slow to develop, but well done when it got there. I did have thoughts of Deliverance a couple of times, but this was no copy of that. I also can see this as a movie.

[addunn3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two young men canoe the Canadian wilderness and encounter a wildfire, bad guys and an injured woman.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's not often that an American writer sets an adventure thriller in Manitoba so when I read a review about this book and saw that it was set on a river in northern Manitoba I wanted to read it. Another inducement is that I had read a previous work by the author, The Dog Stars, and I really liked it. This book was not as thrilling as The Dog Stars but it was still interesting and held my attention.

Jack and Wynn are two college friends who have taken many canoeing trips together. Jack grew up in Colorado and has many skills for outdoor survival; Wynn is an Easterner and is more of an optimist than Jack. The two have long wanted to canoe the Maskwa River because it is so remote that very few people have canoed it. They envision leisurely days of paddling and fishing and picking blueberries and at first that is what they get. However, nature is about to throw them a curve ball and then human nature will pitch it at top speed. They smell smoke one day and when they climb a tree to get a better look they espy a huge forest fire heading toward the river. They realize they had better pick up the pace and as they run across a pair of inebriated Americans they warn them as well. That night a mist settles in and they hear other voices (so much for uninhabited wilderness) which they realize belong to a man and woman arguing. Because of the mist they can't find them to warn them but as they camp at the first portage a single man in a canoe shows up. He tells them that his wife walked out into the mist and he couldn't find her. He has an injury to his leg so Jack and Wynn offer to go back to look for her. This detour will almost prove their undoing but they do manage to find the woman, Maya, who is suffering from shock and exposure and a head wound. She is non-responsive and they lose a day trying to revive her enough that they can travel with her. When they get back to their original campsite they find that all their provisions and extra clothes have been destroyed. Also Maya's husband, Pierre, is nowhere in evidence. Perhaps a black bear did the damage or perhaps it was Pierre. Regardless they have to get further down the river because the forest fire is approaching and the river is too narrow where they are. Hellish days and nights follow.

There were, for me, way too many details about fishing and paddling and wilderness survival but that may appeal to some people. There is no doubt that Peter Heller knows his stuff. I was a little disappointed to read that the Maskwa River of the book was actually based upon the Winisk River in nothern Ontario. That explains why when directions were mentioned they seemed off to me. Rivers in northern Manitoba mainly flow west to east but in the book the river was trending north all the time. Oh well, I'm sure the vast majority of readers won't concern themselves with that.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When the time came to choose a new book to read, the stack of books I choose from looked unappealing. But I had a copy of this book that I'd picked up because the men in my family like this kind of thing and they are also lazy and expect me to keep books on hand for them. And, in that moment, it looked like just the kind of book I wanted to read. And it was.

This is the story of two college friends who are on a wilderness canoe trip in Canada. Partway through, two things happen that irrevocably alter a fun trip into something far more dangerous. First, they discover that a large forest fire is moving in their direction. Without any means of calling for help, their only hope is to reach the settlement on the shore of Hudson's Bay before the fire. Second, they meet a man canoeing alone and he tells them his wife is lost in the woods.

This is an adventure story told in a straight forward, Hemingway-esque way. The sentences are clear and direct and unadorned. The two young men are likewise straight forward guys, healthy young men who enjoy the wilderness and have the skills to make this kind of trip. And there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from a good story, well-told.

[josephking6602 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Interesting ‘thriller’ about 2 friends on a white-water canoeing trip.

[paperdolllady · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Skillfully written. The visuals created by the author's words took this reader along for the ride, in the canoe, on the water, through the Canadian wilderness. A uniquely crafted crime story.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My introduction to Peter Heller was a dystopian thriller called The Dog Stars. That was reason enough for me to turn to his recent (2019) adventure novel, The River. In it he introduces two young men, Jack and Wynn are best friends taking some time off from there terms at Dartmouth, sharing a love of books and the outdoors. Jack is compact and pragmatic. Wynn is a big guy with a big heart, always eager to see the good in everyone. They’ve taken countless canoeing and outdoor trips together, so a canoe journey down the Maskwa River in northern Canada seems just like heaven.

Despite their strong wilderness skills, their adventure is put to the test when they discover a massive wildfire threatens to overtake them. Even worse, while paddling through the fog, they overhear a heated argument between a husband and wife camped on the riverside, only to find a man paddling alone the next day. What starts off as a fun-filled retreat into nature becomes a race against time that pits them against the very river they meant to savor.

"They had paddled many rivers together in the two years they’d known each other and climbed a lot of peaks. Sometimes one had more appetite for danger, sometimes the other. There was a delicate but strong balance of risk versus caution in their team thinking, with the roles often fluid, and it’s what made them such good partners." (p 15)

One is provided with the appearance of a wildfire that seems unstoppable. Add a damsel in distress and her dangerous husband and you have the right mix for excitement. But that would be of little interest if there was nothing else to sustain your interest. Fortunately, Heller intersperses the adventure with flashbacks that provide context to the friendship of Jack and Wynn. Heller's narration shifts in intensity, one moment supremely focused on his characters, the next at a distance from them. Initially, the third person point-of-view focuses on Jack and Wynn's surroundings, the vast Canadian wilderness; pages of description occur before either character is named. Jack's interior life given the most space. The novel mirrors the river; just as it widens and narrows, languidly drifts or rushes through rapids, perspective and tone shift to further the story.

They're both supremely well-read college students, and they (Wynn especially) have a love for philosophy. The conflicts in the novel are ultimately human-driven, despite the wilderness survival backdrop, and the clashes that Jack and Wynn have about human nature are in direct conversation with the plot points. From the outset, Wynn wants to see the best in the lone man they find canoeing, but Jack is certain the man is a killer. Heller also uses religious language, suggesting that Jack and Wynn are on a pilgrimage of sorts—reinforcing the idea that this is a morality play about the concepts of good and evil.

While the opening section of the novel acts as a prelude, the story moves along more and more quickly as does both the river and the fire. Ultimately, The River offers both a literal and figurative journey; it is a thrilling and contemplative page-turner with sharp insight into the human condition.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The River by Peter Heller is the story two best friends, Jack and Winn, and the canoe trip they took through the Canadian wilderness. After an idyllic week of paddling, camping, fishing and enjoying each other’s company, a series of events changes their trip and brings their very survival into question. First they smell faint traces of smoke and soon realize that a giant forest fire is bearing down on them, they need to hurry to get downriver to safety. Secondly they meet a couple of drunken Texans that don’t want to listen to their warnings of the fire but would rather make obscene jokes and continue drinking. Lastly, as they paddle through a dense fog, they hear a man and a woman arguing and later on downriver, they meet the man but this time he is alone. He claims his wife wandered off, but Jack and Winn decide to go back and try to rescue her.

The story is engrossing and moves at a rapid pace yet the author is still able to write beautiful passages capturing the scenery and nature. The River is both a thrilling page-turner and an homage to both the scenery and the deep connection that these two men share. I love a good survival story and this one absolutely delivered the goods.

[kimmeyer-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This isn't my kind of story, so this book was just fine for me.

[brianinbuffalo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As previous reviews have suggested, “The River” is definitely a “slow burner” (pun intended). Heller’s skillful storytelling makes his overly-detailed narrative about wilderness survival not only tolerable but frequently enjoyable. Heller introduces a small cast of intriguing characters. The plot contains a number of suspenseful twists that keep the pages turning. It’s well worth the read, even though I doubt it will have long-term “staying power” for me.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not quite a thriller, though I tagged it so. Thrillers hurtle the reader along, often sacrificing character development and writing style. This book has it all. A great plot, with a dangerous wildfire, a mysterious injured woman, some drunks with guns, and near-starvation; marred only slightly by the sudden epilogue, describing what happened instead of taking us along in it. The main characters, friends from Dartmouth, are fleshed out with back-stories; they have thoughts as well as actions.

The writing was amazing. Deep-dive technical yet never-boring descriptions of paddling: "On the lakes above they'd had all the time in the world and so had paddled expedition-style, with the sternman finishing his stroke with a slight twist of the shaft and the paddle's power face arcing outward, the J-stroke" and fly-fishing (Heller is obviously expert at both); balanced with almost poetic descriptions: "The swift shadows striped them with running stains that flowed over without a snag and suddenly cooled the air ..."

Yet when the plot picked up, so did the pace of the sentences: "They were strong paddlers and they lay into a steady rhythm and they stuck to the center of the river where a blast from a shotgun would be less likely to kill them."

One of my favorite books of the year so far.

[renbedell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thrilling story of 2 young men surviving the wilderness and dangers that lurk there. The story is about 2 young men going on a river trip that get pulled into a rescue mission from a would-be murderer while also avoiding a massive forest fire. It is exciting and well written. There are moments of peace and calm in nature that balance out the thrilling and adventure parts well. I enjoyed this book.

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply amazing. This guy is an incredible writer.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book had a strong rec from a friend and I really liked Heller's debut novel The Dog Stars. This is a good story - part literary travelogue (if you are into river running and fly fishing), part survivalist, part mystery and big part thriller. This had the potential to be my favorite book of the year (so far at least) but it let me down. It seems to me that for a thriller the story was stretched out too far, and with a lot of tedious detail which was overdone. (When I'm reading and my head is talking to myself saying c'mon c'mon would you get going here...) As a mystery, a plot device kept us from knowing the mystery early on, and that got frustrating after a while. The core to the story is about the friendship of two men who have each other's backs (although more than a few times keeping them separate in my mind should have been easy but wasn't.) There are numerous flashbacks in the story which flesh out the characters but disrupt the flow of the story. The end is a little unconventional and what was there was fine, but what wasn't there was not fine. It felt like a cheat and I can't say why without being spoilery. I wanted more closure. Despite all my bothers I thought this a very good book and for details of the story one can scan a few real reviews here.

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A slow to build novel, this one gets very interesting at about the middle of it. Whether you can hang in there through the beginning is another story all together. The ending was bittersweet.
Narrated by Mark Deakins, he read this novel like it was a western, with a real love of the land. I enjoyed that a lot.
3.5 stars, and recommended to those with patience and the respect of a slow mover and builder. I think it was worth it.

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The River by Peter Heller is a 2019 Knopf Publishing Group publication.

An intense adventure between man and nature amidst a battle between good and evil…

Two close friends, Wynn and Jack, one from Vermont and the other from Colorado, each with different temperaments, decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada. They have dreams of taking it slow and easy, kicking back and enjoying nature at its finest.

However, a wildfire changes the tone of their trip, adding a sense of unease that intensifies when, after hearing a couple arguing, they attempt to warn them of the fire, but can’t seem to locate them in the fog. The next day they encounter a man paddling alone on the river, who claims his wife has gone missing.

From there Wynn and Jack find themselves in a taut, dangerous situation as they search for the missing woman, while the wildfire builds to a crescendo.

Wow! Talk about white knuckle suspense! This book is less than three hundred pages long, but sometimes the best things come in small packages.

The story is packed with exceptional and stunning scenery one can truly envision, and the characterizations are just incredible. I understood fully the different personalities Wynn and Jack possessed, how they each had definite and strong opinions about how to approach their unexpected dilemma. The precision timing carries the story from a relaxed excursion to a nightmarish race against time with exceptional pacing that kept me on the edge of seat.

I would agree the story could and should be labeled as a thriller, but it’s much more than that. So much happens in such a short span of time, it isn’t until the final chapter that one has the chance to really stop an reflect on all events leading up to that moment, and how quickly one’s life can drastically change.

The deep emotional impact remains long after the final page is turned. This thought- provoking story was released in 2019 and the message was clear and profound enough at that time. Everyday life poses at least some risk and can turn on a dime, as we have witnessed in the past few weeks, making an already disquieting story about coping with random, unforeseen events feel even more timely than usual.

I’m pushing the ‘recommend’ button on this one.

All the stars for this one!

[earthwind_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two friends on one of many of their adventures in the wilderness are suddenly faced with life changing decisions. Fleeing from a huge wildfire by canoe, they turn back to help someone they had seen in trouble and the dangers suddenly multiplied.

[bookappeal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wynn and Jack's friendship and their risky adventure, northbound on a remote Canadian river with no satellite phone or other means of communicating with civilization is a fascinating story. Heller paints a beautiful and deadly picture of nature and man's interaction with it. I was completely engaged with every facet of how a forest fire affects its surroundings and with Jack and Wynn's survival techniques and how their different personalities mesh and collide. The suspense plot involving a woman beaten and abandoned by her husband, however, feels contrived and the tension it causes between Jack and Wynn could easily have been avoided with one good conversation or with the men trying a little harder to get the woman to explain what happened. But Heller's characteristic staccato writing style doesn't lend itself to explanatory discussion. Heller excels in writing about man and nature and, for me, that story alone would have been fulfilling.