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 Land 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
thenceforth,but he is a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift,
and also one who suspects that his father can overturn the laws of
nature.When Reuben's older brother,Davy,kills two marauders who have
come to harm the family,the town is divided between those who see him
as a hero and those who see him as a cold-blooded murderer.On the
morning of the trial,Davy escapes from his cell,and when his family
finds out they decide to go forth into the unknown in search of him.
With Jeremiah -- whose faith is the stuff of legend -- at the helm,the
family covers territory far more glorious than even the Badlands,where
they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer.By the time the
journey is over,they will have traversed boundaries of a different
nature entirely.Marked by a soul-expanding sense of place and a love of
storytelling,Peace Like a River is at once a heroic quest,a tragedy,a
romance,and a heartfelt meditation on the possibility of magic in the
everyday world.
