Peace Like a River - by Leif Enger (Paperback)

About the Book

Hailed as one of the year's top five novels by "Time, " and selected as one of the best books of the year by nearly all major newspapers, national bestseller "Peace Like a River" is now available in paperback. In "lyrical, openhearted prose" (Michael Glitz, "The New York Post"), Enger tells the story of 11-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy who has reason to believe in miracles.

Book Synopsis

A "reminder of why we read fiction to begin with" (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger's extraordinary debut novel--a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world--with over one million copies sold

Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it's up to us to "make of it what we will." Reuben was born with no air in his lungs, and it was only when his father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that his lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.

The quiet Midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Davy, the oldest son, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family; unlike his father, he is not content to leave all matters of justice in God's hands. The morning of his sentencing, Davy-a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others-escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers-among them a free spirit named Roxanna, who offers them a place to stay during a blizzard and winds up providing them with something far more permanent. Meanwhile, a federal agent is trailing the Lands, convinced they know of Davy's whereabouts.

With Jeremiah at the helm, the family covers territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River unfolds like a revelation.

Review Quotes

Praise for Peace Like a River

New York Times Bestseller

A Time Magazine Top Five Book of the Year

A Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Denver Post Best Book of the Year

"Leif Enger . . . is a natural-born storyteller, and his novel moves in a current that can be poetic and slow or as tumultuous as whitewater rapids. This novel has the power to convince that, despite sorrow, human experience is a miracle of ordinary truth and extraordinary love." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A rich mixture of adventure, tragedy, and healing ... a journey you simply must not miss." -Christian Science Monitor

"What allows Peace Like a River to transcend any limitations of belief and genre is its broad, sagacious humanity . . . There is magic here, none more potent than Enger's prose."-Newsday

"Peace Like a River serves as a reminder of why we read fiction to begin with." --San Francisco Chronicle

"If you like a ripping good story told in robust prose that gives you goose bumps, latch onto this book - more than a novel of miracles, it is truly a miraculous novel." --The Seattle Times

"You don't see novels like this one very often. Peace Like a River reminds a reader of Kent Haruf's Plainsong or even Norman MacLean's A River Runs Through It. It's got that pure American loss of innocence theme, that belief in and fascination with miracles, that insistence on the goodness of men outside of the law." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A compelling blend of traditional and artfully offbeat storytelling . . . a miracle well worth witnessing . . . Grade: A."--Boston Globe

"If ever there was a time for a novel of faith and redemption-a quiet book of old-fashioned verities-this is it. --New York Post

About the Author

LEIF ENGER was raised in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Independent Publisher Book Award and was one of the Los Angeles Times and Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year. He is also the author of So Brave, Young, and Handsome and Virgil Wander. He and his wife Robin live in Minnesota.