The River by Peter Heller

 

Jack and Wynn are good friends, forged by their interest in nature and outdoor adventure.  They met at college orientation and have been friends since, even working together in the summer in a wilderness camp.  They plan on a canoe trip to end the summer, traveling the length of the Maskwa River in Canada.  It has enough whitewater to challenge them but also long stretches of placid water where they can fish and relax.

But things don't work out as planned.  Their first week is perfect, exactly what they had wanted when they planned the trip.  But things change rapidly in nature and one morning they wake up to notice a change.  A forest fire has started and is headed their way, a fire bigger than any they have ever seen.  They change their plans to get to their end destination as quickly as possible.

As they go, they encounter two groups of people.  One is a pair of middle-aged men, who are obviously on the river to drink and who are showing the effects of doing so.  They tell the men who opt to stay where they are.  Then Jack and Wynn pass a couple who they can hear are arguing.  They don't stop for them as they don't want to get involved.  But when the man in the couple shows up alone at their campsite, they decide to go back for her.

They find the woman bloody and barely conscious.  They load her up in the canoe and return to their campsite only to find that their gear has been tossed over a ravine.  All their protective gear, their emergency supplies and most importantly their food.  Why would the man do that?  Does he have even more plans to stop them?  What about the drunken couple?  Could this have been them?  The huge fire creeps closer and closer as they attempt to flee, burdened by a woman who could die and no supplies.  Can they survive?

Peter Heller is an American author whose work often includes his main interest, the outdoors.   In his personal life, he spends time surfing and whitewater rafting.  He also writes articles about the outdoors for various magazines.  I've read several of his novels and what I like about his writing is that each book is different from those before it.  This book explores nature and man's place in it, friendship and facing danger.  Wynn and Jack are very different although they share a love of nature.  Watching their friendship and their knowledge of nature and what to do in various scenarios is fascinating.  There is plenty of suspense and they encounter new dangers around each curve, both natural and man made.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.