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Start giftingGo as a River
A novel
Due to publisher restrictions, this audiobook is unavailable for purchase in your selected country.
Narrator
Cynthia Farrell
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Length
9 hours 57 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“A beautifully written historical novel about a young woman in late 1940s Colorado living with her taciturn father, cruel brother, and bitter, war-wounded uncle on the family peach farm. For fans of Where The Crawdad's Sing and Wallace Stegner, and for those who want evocative writing that evokes the natural world and the American West, this debut novel delivers a love story, a tale of racism in a small town, and a wilderness survival story. I loved every single sentence. But I warn you that you will want to eat a perfectly ripe peach as you read. ”
— Em • A Great Good Place for Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Fast paced and descriptive, the words never felt wasted. Set in the harsh reality of 1940s life, a teenage girl’s forbidden love stirs a small Colorado town where loss, prejudice, and rage prevail. As beautiful as it is devastating.”
— Paula Frank • Balin Books
In the spirit of Where the Crawdads Sing, and set amid the beauty and wilderness of the Colorado mountains, an unforgettable and deeply moving story of a young woman who follows her heart
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family's peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land but determined to live as he chooses.
Victoria's chance encounter with Wil on a street corner profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the nearby mountains. Taking shelter in a small hut, she struggles to survive in the wilderness, with no clear notion of what her future will be. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the natural world the strength and meaning that set her on a quest to regain all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River rises to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.
Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the midst of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when the river is dammed.
SHELLEY READ is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications. Go As a River, her first novel, is inspired by the landscape she comes from and will be published in over twenty-five territories.
Reviews
"Shelley Read's lyrical voice is a force of nature, and when she lends it to a woman leading a hardscrabble life in rural Colorado, the result is tragic, uplifting—and completely unforgettable." —Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry"A key title for 2023. This soaring, compassionate tale of female resilience is set against the breath-taking beauty of the natural world—its trees and mountains and light." —Independent
"A beautiful, compassion-filled debut—a hymn to the cycles of the natural world and testament to the resilience of the human spirit." —Daily Mail
"Read delicately unfurls the growing attraction between Torie and Wil, set against vicious bigotry toward Native Americans. Their love is the 'small fateful twist' that forever changes the trajectory of Torie's life. With delicate precision, Read evokes both Colorado's rugged wilderness and the landscapes of her characters' troubled hearts. An auspicious debut." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Lyrical…. Read, a fifth-generation Coloradan, draws characters and settings with period authenticity, stunning imagery, and deft metaphors." —Booklist
"Go as a River radiates a calm wonder at the natural world as it explores themes of love, loss and resilience on Colorado's Western Slope." —Alta Magazine
"Astonishing. . . . This is a story of loss, and courage. Rather than witnessing the appalling and cruel events that shape the life of the main character, we are carried along as part of her in her journey . . . . In the end, there is solace and comfort that is graciously found." —Colorado Sun
"[Go as a River is] a tremendous debut, lyrically written, with an atmospheric sense of time and place." —Culturefly
"Read’s prose is almost lyrical in her depiction of the land she clearly loves. . . . This debut novel is a gem." —The Durango Herald
"Fast paced and descriptive, the words never felt wasted. Set in the harsh reality of 1940s life, a teenage girl's forbidden love stirs a small Colorado town where loss, prejudice, and rage prevail. As beautiful as it is devastating." —American Booksellers Association
"Go as a River delivers so very much: the tenderness and curiosity of young love, the eternal pangs of loss, the brutality of racism, the sustaining power of nature even in the face of man's destruction, and the precarious miracle of a mother’s love. Suffused with wisdom and compassion, this shattering testimony to life is one to be savored, treasured, shared." —Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Postmistress of Paris
"Completely spellbinding, vivid, and luminous." —Jane Green, author of Sister Stardust
"Victoria Nash is a character for the ages, as she navigates loss and despair on the road to redemption. . . . Go as a River is a stunning debut set in the soul of the American dream." —Adriana Trigiani, author of The Good Left Undone
"In Go as a River, Shelley Read delivers a heartbreaking and uplifting tale of a girl becoming a woman in a man's world. Young Victoria Nash is as tough and resilient as the Colorado mountains where she takes refuge, and as tender as the peaches that are her family legacy. Book clubs will love this redemptive story." —Tiffany Quay Tyson, author of The Past Is Never
"A compelling tale of love blighted by bigotry, and a dauntless heroine fighting back against insuperable odds. She had me racing to bed so I could read another chapter." —Patrick Gale
"A lush, beautiful, strong book. It took me on a transformative life journey. I could not put it down." —Clover Stroud
"An extraordinary story of fate, determination and love. Gorgeous, and beautifully written, your heart will break for all Victoria has to lose and mend with all that she has to find. Tender and heart-breaking." —Marianne Cronin, author of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
"Go As A River swept me away. It is gorgeously written. Longing, passion and heartbreak are all set down with such a beauty and restraint that I had to set the book down, amazed. Every page was a joy to read. Magnificent." —Sue Fletcher
"The way in which the rivers flow, the land gives and takes back, and how these things shape Victoria's life and livelihood are beautiful. It is such a redemptive story, despite the heartache. We should all care for our peach trees with this much tenderness." —Anne Youngson, author of Meet at the Museum Expand reviews