Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
Once in a great while, we encounter a novel in our voluminous reading that begs to be read aloud. Leif Enger's debut, Peace Like a River, is one such work. His richly evocative novel, narrated by an asthmatic 11-year-old named Reuben Land, is the story of Reuben's unusual family and their journey across the frozen Badlands of the Dakotas in search of his fugitive older brother. Charged with the murder of two locals who terrorized their family, Davy has fled, understanding that the scales of justice will not weigh in his favor. But Reuben, his father, Jeremiah -- a man of faith so deep he has been known to produce miracles -- and Reuben's little sister, Swede, follow closely behind the fleeing Davy.

Affecting and dynamic, Peace Like a River is at once a tragedy, a romance, and an unflagging exploration into the spirituality and magic possible in the everyday world, and in that of the world awaiting us on the other side of life. In Enger's superb debut effort, we witness a wondrous celebration of family, faith, and spirit, the likes of which we haven't seen in a long, long time -- and the birth of a classic work of literature. (Fall 2001 Selection)

Set in the early 1960s, Enger's debut novel is narrated by eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy whose close-knit family is broken apart after the oldest son, Davy, commits a crime of passion and becomes a fugitive. Reuben, his father and younger sister become immersed in a series of mystical events as they follow Davy's trail across the northern United States. Enger's book is filled with biblical illusions and miracles crowd its pages like proverbial angels on the head of a pin; one curious scene features a pot of soup that replenishes itself in loaves-and-fishes fashion. The highlight of the book is its engaging narrator, Reuben Land: He's funny, endearing and committed to his family, no matter how wrong their actions.
—David Abrams

Dead for 10 minutes before his father orders him to breathe in the name of the living God, Reuben Land is living proof that the world is full of miracles. But it's the impassioned honesty of his quiet, measured narrative voice that gives weight and truth to the fantastic elements of this engrossing tale. From the vantage point of adulthood, Reuben tells how his father rescued his brother Davy's girlfriend from two attackers, how that led to Davy being jailed for murder and how, once Davy escapes and heads south for the Badlands of North Dakota, 12-year-old Reuben, his younger sister Swede and their janitor father light out after him. But the FBI is following Davy as well, and Reuben has a part to play in the finale of that chase, just as he had a part to play in his brother's trial. It's the kind of story that used to be material for ballads, and Enger twines in numerous references to the Old West, chiefly through the rhymed poetry Swede writes about a hero called Sunny Sundown. That the story is set in the early '60s in Minnesota gives it an archetypal feel, evoking a time when the possibility of getting lost in the country still existed. Enger has created a world of signs, where dead crows fall in a snowstorm and vagrants lie curled up in fields, in which everything is significant, everything has weight and comprehension is always fleeting. This is a stunning debut novel, one that sneaks up on you like a whisper and warms you like a quilt in a North Dakota winter, a novel about faith, miracles and family that is, ultimately, miraculous. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

The cover, though beautiful, seems better suited for a reissue of Robin Hood or Camelot. And the reader's claim to fame is his role as an HIV-positive artist on the TV series Life Goes On. So what makes this an great audiobook? Two things: careful, thoughtful writing by Enger and passionate, spirited reading by Lowe. This is a graceful, stirring first novel, with echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird and classic Americana at its heart. Eleven-year-old Reuben Land lives a typically calm existence in a small Midwestern town; beyond having an extraordinary father (who performs quiet miracles), he's a pretty average boy. When two neighborhood bullies threaten his older brother, Davy, and his younger sister, Swede, life takes on a dark edge. The conflict escalates after Davy shoots the two boys dead, is in jail awaiting trial and escapes. Reuben, Swede and their widowed father take off in search of Davy, moving across the striking landscape of Minnesota and South Dakota. Their search ultimately leads them to make a very important decision, one that challenges their own morals and familial bonds. Enger's characters are exceptionally strong, and Lowe deftly portrays them: Swede's chutzpah, Reuben's reverence for his family, and their father's magic are all admirably expressed. Simultaneous release with the Atlantic Monthly hardcover (Forecasts, July 16). (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Fair or not, Enger's first novel will inevitably be compared to the work of Garrison Keillor: both men are veterans of Minnesota Public Radio, and the book very much shares the spirit of Keillor's radio work and fiction, with its quiet, observant gaze capturing the beauty of simple things, related through wise and thoughtful characters -- in this case, the Land family from North Dakota. Asthmatic youngster Reuben Land tells the admittedly shaggy-dog story of his older brother Davy, who shoots and kills two violent intruders as they break into the family's home; Davy is convicted but manages to flee. Both the Lands and the law follow in hot pursuit, but the family seems to have support from a higher power. Father Jeremiah himself has performed a miracle or two in his lifetime (walking on water, healing the afflicted with his touch, and the like). Biblical allusions abound, and fantastic things happen, such as the patriarch's four-mile tour via tornado. "Make of it what you will," says Reuben. A low-key charmer for literary collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/01.] Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Once you begin Leif Enger's Peace Like A River, you are carried away by the elemental surge of its story, the sheer eagerness to see what happens to the engrossing characters who exist far from the intrusions of the media in the timeless arena of family love and anguish over a lost member. It is Enger's gift that he has made their extraordinary world credible.

Not since Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain or Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plain have I been so engrossed in the reading of a book, and in a story told so beautifully. While reading it in the airport, I nearly missed my plane, so completely did I forget my surroundings; and upon arriving at my destination, I nearly forgot to get off. Peace Like a River is that loveliest of gifts, a truly great book, into which the reader can sink deliciously and completely. The characters fill the reader's days and nights; and in the reading of it, we cross over into amazing territory.

I'm urging this book on you because it is written in prose tart and crisp as a Minnesota Autumn. Peace Like a River is seductive and chatty and deliciously American and there are passages so wondrous and wise you'll want to claw yourself with pleasure.

"What readers will appreciate first in Enger's marvelous novel is the language. His limpid sentences are composed with the clarity and richness for which poets strive. . . . Enger's profound understanding of human nature stands behind his compelling prose." (Starred review.)

Minnesotan Enger pulls out the stops in this readable albeit religiously correct debut about a family with a father who may be touched by God and a son by the Devil. Jeremiah Land's wife left him years ago, and now, in a midwestern town called Roofing, in 1962 or so, he's janitor at the local school and sole parent of chronically asthmatic Reuben, 11 and the tale's teller; his precocious sister Swede, only 9 and already an accomplished poet of western outlaw-romances; and Davy, who at 17 becomes a killer-though possibly a just one. Two town boys from the wrong side of the tracks have a grudge against custodian Jeremiah (he caught them in the girls' locker room) and, after vowing revenge (and briefly kidnapping Swede), they appear one night in the upstairs of the Land house, whereupon Davy (did he lure them there?) bravely and determinedly shoots them dead. There's a trial, a conviction -- and then a jailbreak as Davy escapes, not to be seen for some months. Miraculous? Well, Reuben has seen his father walk on air ("Make of it what you will," he advises the reader), and now there's a miraculous meal (a pot of soup is bottomless), the miracle of the family's being left an Airstream trailer-even the miracle of Jeremiah being fired, leaving the family free to take to the road after Davy. The direction they go (toward the Badlands), how they avoid the police, what people they meet (including a future wife for Jeremiah), how they find handsome Davy -- all depend on what may or may not constitute miracle, subtle or wondrous, including the suspenseful events leading to a last gunfight and the biggest miracle of all (preceded by a glimpse of heaven), all followed by certain rearrangements among the lives of mortals. Handsomely written, rich with the feel and flavor of the plains -- and suited mainly for those whose yearnings are in the down-home, just-folks style of the godly.

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

“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.”—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Book lovers inclined to complain that novelists don’t write gripping yarns anymore would do well to pick up a copy of Peace Like a River, a compelling blend of traditional and artfully offbeat storytelling . . . a miracle well worth witnessing . . . Grade: A.”—Amanda Heller, Boston Globe

“The Lands are such a fascinating family that they could easily populate a memorable book even with no plot to speak of. Swede may be literature’s most unforgettable little girl since Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.”—Gail Pennington, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“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.” —Valerie Ryan, The Seattle Times

“Enger has written a novel that’s boldly romantic and unabashedly appealing, a collage of legends from sources sacred and profane—from the Old Testament to the Old West, from the Gospels to police dramas. It’s a journey you simply must not miss.”—Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor

“There are miracles in this book, of faith and family and place, that come alive by the breathless climax.”—Karen Valby, Entertainment Weekly

“Here is a world we want to know. Here is an author we can trust and who we are willing to follow anywhere. Enger strikes just the right balance of instinctive storytelling, narrative play and pretty prose. He’s the type of writer that other writers read, and die a little. Peace Like a River is a book that serves to remind us why we read fiction to begin with: to commune with a vividly, lovingly rendered world, to lose ourselves in story and language and beauty, to savor what we don’t want to end yet know must.”—Andrew Roe, The San Francisco Chronicle

“One of the most wondrous books I’ve read in recent years. If Peace Like a River is reminiscent of anything, it’s John Irving’s A Prayer of Owen Meany, another novel infused with transformative magic. ‘What do I make of Peace Like a River?’ That something rare and precious–maybe even miraculous–has this way come.”—Polly Paddock, The Charlotte Observer

“It’s dangerous work, writing about faith. To get it as right as Leif Enger does in his novel is nothing short of miraculous. What could be unbelievable becomes extraordinary in Enger’s hands. If words can bolster lapsed faith, if a story can sturdy a shaky foundation, then the flow of Enger’s amazing new novel may bring more than a few of us to his promised peace.”—Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald

“If ever there was a time for a novel of faith and redemption–a quiet book of old-fashioned verities–this is it. Written in lyrical, open-hearted prose, Peace Like a River even has a comforting, remarkable glimpse into the afterlife.”—Michael Giltz, New York Post

“Leif Enger has written a great Midwestern, a debut novel that explores the limits of filial loyalty and inscribes the northern Great Plains on the reader’s bones. Enger’s people are tender-hearted stoics, played not for humor but for something more raw—Garrison Keillor’s characters in the hands of Russell Banks.”—Bruce Barcott, Outside

“Even if you believe only in stirring, heart-thumping storytelling and sentences that sing, this book will work for you. If you’re a devotee of boys’ adventure books–bruised innocents confronting scoundrels round every bend–all the better. But 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 that Leif Enger’s prose.”—Dan Cryer, Newsday

“Outlaws and miracle workers take center stage in this tightly constructed, lyrical novel. Of the many pleasures of this book [are] Reuben’s conversational voice, the lovely prose and the dead-on evocation of place and time.”—Robin Hemley, Chicago Tribune

“A spirit of peace flows through the whole gripping saga . . . Told in poetic, lyrical style.”—Anna Bedford, Horizons

“The narrative picks up power and majesty, then thunders to a tragic, yet joyous, climax.”—Bella Stander, People

“Leif Enger may have unwittingly written the perfect book for an anxious time. A book of deep faith in faith, yet it is neither simple nor sentimental. It is the surest thing to a winner this fall, a book of great literary merit that nonetheless restores readers’ faith in the kindness of stories.”—Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press

“In his big-hearted debut novel, Leif Enger spins a rich, old-fashioned yarn about brotherhood, faith and family. It is a tale full of magical plot twists and supernatural flights of fancy. Enger’s twinkle-eyed prose will coax even the most skeptical readers to suspend their disbelief. We need to create in order to believe, Enger suggests. And if this wondrous book is any suggestion of its author’s faith in the world, that belief is large and beautiful.”—John Freeman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Gripping, richly textured, filled with sharp prose and vividly realized scenes, [Peace Like a River] has the makings of that rarest commodity: the literate bestseller.”—Chris Waddington, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[A] breathtaking, stand-out debut novel. Enger’s exceptional talent with language and character make this adventure, romance and moral coming-of-age story one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time . . . A thing of beauty.”—Lynn Hartnett, Portsmouth Herald

“A beautiful story of a family searching for its fugitive son [that] pulls out all the literary stops and ensnares you in a few pages. Enger’s great talent is evident in his deep knowledge of character, and the way he so easily seduces us ’We are putty in [his] hands.”—Geeta Sharma-Jensen, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Everything you want in a book–especially love, honesty and adventure. It is touching, but at the same time it will keep you on the edge of your seat . . . To read this book is to feel like you are at the start of something great; you’ll want to tell all your friends and force strangers in bookstores to buy it.”—Lynn Carey, Walnut Creek Contra Costa Times

“[Peace Like a River is] not so much an on-the-road story as one celebrating family and faith.”—Ft. Myers News-Press

“A stunning novel about faith, miracles and a family that is ultimately miraculous. It echoes the essence of restorative power found in great literature.”—Lorraine Lindahl, The Minnesota Senior News

“The amalgam of strong characters, Biblical illusions, and great epic storytelling makes this novel hard to put down.”—Rachelle Lasky Bilz, Teacher Librarian

“The miraculous and the mundane are woven together seamlessly . . . Enger has crafted a moving story and placed it in the mouth of a refreshingly open and candid narrator.”—Rob Cline, Bookreporter

“This is a stunning debut novel, one that sneaks up on you like a whisper and warms you like a quilt in a North Dakota winter, a novel about faith, miracles and family that is, ultimately, miraculous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Written in prose tart and crisp as a Minnesota Autumn, Peace Like A River is seductive and deliciously American and there are passages so wondrous and wise you’ll want to claw yourself with pleasure.”—Frank McCourt

“Once you begin Leif Enger’s Peace Like A River, you are carried away by the elemental surge of its story, the sheer eagerness to see what happens to the engrossing characters who, though contemporary exist far from the intrusions of the media in the timeless arena of family love and anguish over a lost member. It is Enger’s gift that he has made their extraordinary world credible.”—Jim Harrison

“Enger’s limpid sentences are composed with the clarity and richness for which poets strive . . . Peace Like a River is an exceptionally heartfelt and moving tale about the resilience of family relationships and told through the prism of memory . . . Enger’s profound understanding of human nature stands behind his compelling prose.”—Booklist (starred review)

“A dazzling first novel. This poignant book is about family and sacrifice and the lengths to which people go to protect those they love. Peace Like a River has all the hallmarks of a lasting piece of fiction.”—Karin Glendenning, Chattanooga Free Press

“A remarkable journey marked by humor, loyalty and, in the end, redemption. Enger’s lyrical language, spirited allusions to old-time outlaws and provocative biblical references . . . make this a wonderfully accomplished first novel.”—BookPage

“What a book! I was captivated from page one. His pitch-perfect prose is a pleasure to read, and his imaginative storytelling took me through the whole range of human emotion. Peace Like a River deserves a huge audience, it’s that good. I eagerly look forward to its arrival so we can begin the delightful task of finding a readership for this really extraordinary (and really fun) novel.”—Mark LaFramboise, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, DC

“A wonderful coming-of-age story, from a 12-year-old boy’s perspective. Set in the early ’60s in the upper Midwest, this novel is the source for great discussions on religious overtones, family issues, and life in that era.”—Corey L. Hiseler, Between the Covers Bookstore, Telluride, CO

Actor Chad Lowe reads with a warm, deliberative voice perfectly suited to Leif Enger’s meditative and melodic story of a family’s search throughout the West for its outlaw son. Lowe doesn’t attempt any verbal flourishes, nor does he try to give specific voices to different characters. Instead, he simply and beautifully reads aloud--slowly enough for Enger’s evocative prose to shine and with just enough emotion to magnify this tale of the redemptive power of love. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine