Into the River of Angels: A Novel

George R. Wolfe’s young adult adventure novel, Into the River of Angels, tells how a high school kid’s ill-conceived plan to canoe the Los Angeles River spirals out of control—an urban journey on a dangerous, forbidden waterway, woven together by a series of epic fails.

It starts when 17-year-old Sam Hawkins—an alienated, disillusioned, and sardonic renegade from the San Fernando Valley—decides he can flee his troubles with an impulsive escape on the infamous L.A. River, a 51-mile, concrete-...