Peace Like a River (First Edition)

Enger, Leif

ISBN 10: 087113795X / ISBN 13: 9780871137951

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2001

About this Item

ew York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001. First edition, first printing, with full number line. Hardcover. Quarter black cloth over blue paper-covered boards, with gilt spine lettering. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Publisher's original price intact on jacket flap ($24.00). Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. A tight clean copy with no faults. Octavo, 311 pages, pale blue endpapers. A novel which follows Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in 1960s Minnesota, whose family sets out on a spiritual quest after his older brother is charged with murder and becomes a fugitive. Enger (b. 1961) is an American novelist who worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before turning to fiction. This was his first novel, a critical and popular success, later followed by "So Brave, Young, and Handsome" (2008) and "Virgil Wander" (2018).

Seller Inventory # Fiction-Enger

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Peace Like a River (First Edition)
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087113795X
• ISBN 13: 9780871137951
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

A “reminder of why we read fiction to begin with” (San Francisco Chronicle), Peace Like a River is Leif Enger’s extraordinary debut novel—a heroic quest, a tragedy, a love story, and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world—with over one million copies sold

Raised on tales of cowboys and pirates, eleven-year-old Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, and that it’s up to us to “make of it what we will.” Reuben 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 from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father is touched by God and can overturn the laws of nature.

The quiet Midwestern life of the Lands is upended when Davy, the oldest son, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family; unlike his father, he is not content to leave all matters of justice in God’s hands. The morning of his sentencing, Davy–a hero to some, a cold-blooded murderer to others–escapes from his cell, and the Lands set out in search of him. Their journey is touched by serendipity and the kindness of strangers–among them a free spirit named Roxanna, who offers them a place to stay during a blizzard and winds up providing them with something far more permanent. Meanwhile, a federal agent is trailing the Lands, convinced they know of Davy’s whereabouts.

With Jeremiah at the helm, the family covers territory far more extraordinary than even the Badlands where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. Sprinkled with playful nods to biblical tales, beloved classics such as Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the westerns of Zane Grey, Peace Like a River unfolds like a revelation.

About the Author

Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year's Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named a best book of the year by Amazon, Library Journal, BookPage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.