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The River

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The River

By: Peter Heller
Narrated by: John Chancer
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YOU CAN TRY TO OUTRUN NATURE... BUT WILL YOU SURVIVE ONE MAN'S FURY?


TWO FRIENDS
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since their first day of college: a gentle giant from Vermont and a rugged kid raised on a ranch in Colorado, brought together by their shared love of literature and the great outdoors.

THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
When they decide to take time off university and canoe down the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate the ultimate wilderness experience: two young men navigating the rapids through the quiet, imposing landscapes of North America.
No phones.
No fellow travellers.
No way of going back.

A HELLISH RIDE
But as a raging wildfire starts to make its way towards them - reducing the towering trees to charred carcasses - their idyllic expedition becomes a desperate race for survival.
And when a man suddenly appears, seemingly in a state of shock and claiming his wife has vanished, the fight against nature's destructive power becomes entangled with a much deadlier game of cat and mouse.

Because the only thing more dangerous than a burning forest is a man's thirst for revenge...©2019 Peter Heller (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Sports Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Survival Adventure Ranch
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This is the second book I've read by this author and I didn't think the first could be surpassed. . but it was. The beautiful descriptions of the landscape, put you right into the story as if you're stood, breathing the same air as the characters. The narration is first class, a voice that weaves the river and the people into your soul.
This is a book that took me on a journey I wasn't expecting and the boys will stay with me for a long time.

Beautiful

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A story of men against nature and men with nature, brought to life wonderfully by John Chancer. Two college students canoeing a remote river encounter violence, and the force and fury of a forest fire. Gripping.

“Between the woods and the water”.

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This is a beautiful book - perhaps not an adjective usually found applied to a crime novel, but this a unique combination of lyrical writing about the natural world and a perceptive story about human nature. The setting is the Canadian wilderness and the two central characters are intelligent and thoughtful young men, one one of whom has a heartbreaking trust in the basic goodness of his fellow human beings. The story gets of to a slow, almost impersonal, start, but do stick with it - if you are at all keen on the wilderness world or interested in the frailties of human nature and how we each cope in our different ways, you'll love it.

An immersive experience of a book

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I found it took me quite some time to get into the narration of this book. It does have lengthy descriptions of surroundings and events and I found myself drifting off quite a lot and having to rewind.

However, I found myself thinking of the story a lot when I wasn’t listening and at the end I found myself caught up in the emotion and hence the 4 star overall rating, rather than the 3 I was originally planning.

Somehow the book crept under my skin when I wasn’t looking...

A slow burn

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A great story and a nice change from the typical genre of thriller stories. Highly recommend as a good read.

A gripping tale

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