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16th out of 31 books
—
102 voters
Where the River Ends
by
Charles Martin (Goodreads Author)
A powerfully emotional and beautifully written story of heartbreaking loss and undying love
He was a fishing guide and struggling artist from a south George trailer park. She was the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate.
Ten years i...more
He was a fishing guide and struggling artist from a south George trailer park. She was the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate.
Ten years i...more
Hardcover, 384 pages
Published
July 15th 2008
by Crown Publishing Group
(first published January 1st 2008)
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Aug 25, 2008
Kimberly
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone!
Recommended to Kimberly by:
Emily
I have read a number of touching and beautiful love stories, but "Where The River Ends" is in a class all of its own. A friend of mine had recommended I try one of Charles Martin's books after finding out how much I love Nicholas Sparks. His style was similar but also distinct. I found myself marking page after page of quotes I didn't want to forget - but in reality, I'd quote the entire book here because the whole thing was so deeply moving. I found myself wiping tears away long after I turned...more
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This beautiful story, written by Charles Martin is about love, commitment, sacrifice and what it really means to be totally responsible for another human being. Doss Michaels (a painter who gives new meaning to the term 'starving artist') meets Abigail Grace Coleman, the daughter of a senator from South Carolina when he literally saves her life when she is attacked and nearly raped. Their love story is just about perfect.... until the day Abbie is diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast can...more
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Charles Martin writes stories about broken men, searching for redemption and healing and the people who love them.
In his sixth novel, "Where the River Ends," we meet Doss Michael, an artist who outpunted his coverage when he met, courted and married the daughter of a powerful South Carolina senator, Abby Coleman. The story is told in alternating chapters, examing their courtship, marriage and life together and their final journey together down the St. Mary's River. Ten years into the marriage,...more
In his sixth novel, "Where the River Ends," we meet Doss Michael, an artist who outpunted his coverage when he met, courted and married the daughter of a powerful South Carolina senator, Abby Coleman. The story is told in alternating chapters, examing their courtship, marriage and life together and their final journey together down the St. Mary's River. Ten years into the marriage,...more
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Inside I'm still kind of choked up, like the debris-filled St. Mary's River after the hurricane. The story is fresh in my gut. I think it will stay with me a long time.
To say the river is a powerful metaphor for the events of this book--for life and death itself--seems trite and cliched when I type it. Where The River Ends is an incredible journey of discovery and love. Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident and knew immediately that each had found their true soul mate. No matt...more
To say the river is a powerful metaphor for the events of this book--for life and death itself--seems trite and cliched when I type it. Where The River Ends is an incredible journey of discovery and love. Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident and knew immediately that each had found their true soul mate. No matt...more
When I finished the last page of this book, I closed my eyes and felt . . . complete. It’s not that he tied every tiny item up too perfectly, it’s just that my experience of the story was everything I needed as a reader. There is a wholeness at the end of the story. When you read about all the brokenness throughout, you feel it, and you’re filled with the longing and hope and struggles of the characters. So when Mr. Martin ends the story, he somehow managed to achieve wholeness in the midst of t...more
Where the River Ends' cover warns you, "This book will break your heart." It did, in a way...but not the way Charles Martin or his editors/publishers intended. I've read Mr. Martin's writings before, and, in my opinion, they were well-written, emotionally charged dramas about people overcoming tragic circumstances. However, all those were published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher; Where the River Ends was not, and its content makes me wonder whether Mr. Martin is truly a Christian, or ju...more
I would give this story 6 stars if available!
They met by accident--a boy from a South Georgia trailer park and a girl from the social elite but they had found their true soul mate. Doss and Abbie meet life's challenges which are many. Doss relates the story. He is an artist who captures his portraits with an unusual ability to reach the heart and soul through the eyes. Abbie is a model with beauty plus and famous designer.
Thinking of this review, I began to write some of the striking poetic pros...more
They met by accident--a boy from a South Georgia trailer park and a girl from the social elite but they had found their true soul mate. Doss and Abbie meet life's challenges which are many. Doss relates the story. He is an artist who captures his portraits with an unusual ability to reach the heart and soul through the eyes. Abbie is a model with beauty plus and famous designer.
Thinking of this review, I began to write some of the striking poetic pros...more
"Where the River Ends" is truly a wonderful love story. Although this book is reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks' "The Notebook" and readers have seen "to-do" lists before, Charles Martin covers new ground in his depiction of a couple's battle with cancer. I sincerely appreciated his realism - he doesn't gloss over the hard questions or the less polite aspects of life with cancer. On the other hand, most readers do not have the affluence - and thus, the privileges that brings - of the couple in this...more
My mom handed this book and said "Read this it's good." Meh I thought. Then I looked at the frount cover "Warning this book will break your heart." Then I thought nope I am not reading this. Well because the other book I am reading currently is not a pull you in type a book I though ok I will give it a shot. I enjoyed it and read it quickly.
The writing was not the most poetic or thought provoking. Yet in a simple way it was. This story was told from a man's point of view which was interesting us...more
The writing was not the most poetic or thought provoking. Yet in a simple way it was. This story was told from a man's point of view which was interesting us...more
I enjoy reading about the South, and since I've vacationed in Charleston the past two summers, I thought I'd save the money this year and take a dip into this novel of love between the passionate, well-bred and doomed Southern woman, Abby, and her raw, artistic husband Doss, telling the story.
The novel is based on two oscillating, parallel narrative paths -- the early days of the courtship and marriage and a bucket-list odyssey boating down the St. Mary's river in Georgia. Along the ways there a...more
The novel is based on two oscillating, parallel narrative paths -- the early days of the courtship and marriage and a bucket-list odyssey boating down the St. Mary's river in Georgia. Along the ways there a...more
In The Mountain Between Us, the protagonist was rescuing a "damsel in distress" in the rugged snow covered mountains in the West. He was definitely in "superman" mode, but most of the story was believable. I loved his descriptions and the side story of his own marriage.
Where the River Ends follows the same style of writing, but NOTHING is credible. He starts with a pretty good premise but then just goes out into the stratosphere of credible story telling. I felt that the author, himself, really...more
Where the River Ends follows the same style of writing, but NOTHING is credible. He starts with a pretty good premise but then just goes out into the stratosphere of credible story telling. I felt that the author, himself, really...more
It has been a long while since I have wept aloud while reading a book, but this book literally broke my heart. Where the River Ends is the distressing story of Doss & Abbie Michaels and their marriage of 15 years. Abbie is a senator's daughter and Doss is the son of a trailer trash mother. Though they hail from completly different worlds, never have two people belonged together more than this modern day Romeo and Juliette. This is a beautifully crafted tragedy of a love that is tested and p...more
I give this book 3 stars- but only because of the two main characters. I was smitten by the way the hero in this tale loved and cared for his wife. I also relished in the unbelievable knack his dying wife had for popping out of her highly-medicated state in a recurrently timely fashion to say something intensely clever. (She manages this while being carted around like a sack of potatoes and simultaneously suffering tremendous pain from her terminal illness.) These traits which made me love them...more
I downloaded this as an audiobook from my public library, don't remember why. I started listening to itnon a long road trip. I was immediately caught up with the cadence and sound of te reader's voice. That wonderful southern sound that can only come from the Charlestown area. Very appropriate to the story. The first chapters made me think of Pat Conroy and other southern writers. The writing was decent though full of cliches...a good story line but then suddenly a twist to the plot that didn't...more
I just. Couldn't. Do it. I tried to read this book, but I couldn't. From the very cover, with its silly “Warning: This book will break your heart.” I doubted this book. The prose was overly conversational, with phrases like, “See that. That’s what I love about her.”
I don’t like this kind of writing. I don’t want someone ACTUALLY telling me a story, I want someone storytelling. The difference, for me, is simple. In one, I am consciously aware of the teller, and in the other the words disappear a...more
I don’t like this kind of writing. I don’t want someone ACTUALLY telling me a story, I want someone storytelling. The difference, for me, is simple. In one, I am consciously aware of the teller, and in the other the words disappear a...more
This was the first Charles Martin book that I read and I had a very hard time getting into the novel. He is an extremely detailed writer when it comes to scenery and background. When describing a building, park or river, I feel like I was there. However, when it came to the characters and their interactions I felt like there was something lacking. Descriptions of people where lacking in description. Almost as if the characters were so in love with each other they didn't know whow to explain why...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This was my first book to read by Charles Martin. One of the influential reasons I chose to read it was because it was highly recommended by a friend of mine. The second being was that some reviewers said it was as compulsive as Picoult. For those who know me well, I ADORE Picoult's work. And I'm a sucker for love stories, of course. The beginning of the story may be a bit slow/dry for those who are not used to her style. This book signifies the true commitment of love and really makes you think...more
As a rating of 1-5 I give it a 10. The story is told unconventionally, through each chapter alternating from present to past. Although it is written this way, in no-way does it take from the story. In fact I feel it adds more emotion than otherwise would have been conveyed. The story is fiction, however, it has a truth to it's pages that glimpses what life between two people should be. The impenitence bond created by love.
The book warns of heartbreak and tears, though for me, the constant break...more
The book warns of heartbreak and tears, though for me, the constant break...more
A story of unconditional love that suffers tragedy and loss but never loses hope, metaphorically written about a journey through life, love, death, and an unceasing hope that can reveal true beauty. Although it is entertaining to flash from past to present, as this story does, there were times when there was a lack of flow and details and I found myself having to recap a few times. Some glitter for this book: it has a few proufound epiphanies, beautifully written. Small, but profound. I didn't c...more
This book moved me to tears and smiles. The author creates a believable "soul mates" kind of love between two people from very different backgrounds. Mr. Martin is one of the rare male authors who are convincing in depiction of women. The tragic end of the story, the wife's death from stage 4 cancer, is clearly foreseen but the way the husband and wife deal with it is constantly surprising. The book is very well written and I could have speeded through it, but I found myself lingering over the e...more
Story about a man, Doss, who takes his dying wife (cancer) on a canoe trip to "where the river ends." On the trip, he wishes to fulfill 10 of his wife's (Abbie) items on her "bucket list." He encounters many obstacles along the way, the main one being that his father-in-law, a senator treats Doss's trip as a kidnapping. The story was enjoyable, and the author did a good job with integrating the past (when they met/discovered the cancer/etc) and the present (the trip). He did this chapter by chap...more
I loved the description of Doss Michael paddling up the river with his wife, who is dying from cancer. Wow! I learned a lot about the last stages of cancer. I liked her "Wish List"; of the 10 things that she still wanted to do before she died. I think she came up with it right after the doctors told her that they were going to call hospice. I think that doctors, at that time, just gave her 10 days to live. It's incredible what they were able to do in the amount of time that they had left to them...more
Abbie Coleman encontra-se na fase final de uma luta de quatro anos contra um cancro. Todas as tentativas de tratamento foram esgotadas e resta-lhe muito pouco tempo. É então que, para cumprir uma lista de 10 desejos, o seu marido Doss Michaels a leva numa viagem de canoa pelo rio St. Marys, fronteira entre a Georgia e a Florida, contra a vontade da sua família, em especial do pai de Abbie.
Ao longo dessa viagem cheia de dificuldades, os dois irão encontrar o melhor e o pior do ser humano, à medid...more
Ao longo dessa viagem cheia de dificuldades, os dois irão encontrar o melhor e o pior do ser humano, à medid...more
The story of Doss Michaels and his wife Abbie (Abigail Grace Coleman)is put together in such a wonderful way that you don't want to stop reading. The story goes back and forth between the present and the past (a little of Doss' childhood and then the story of the meeting, marriage and life of Doss and Abbie). This is a true love story and the love is shown in the way Doss and Abbie treat each other. One of the things I really liked about this novel is that it isn't sappy like so many romantic no...more
This book was okay, but not earth-shaking. I enjoyed the overall story, and perhaps it may even prove to be memorable, but the writing was a bit sloppy and slow. Sometimes it seemed like the author was including details just to prove he'd done his homework, more like a laundry list than relevant information. Conversely, some of the most important moments were inadequately supported and described. Still, the relationships were moving. The story is about a husband taking his dying wife (breast can...more
This was a book that I needed to read. I am not one for love stories, this was one that I am glad that I picked up. Though it was a quick-read, the message of unconditional love and forgiveness was one that can not be restated too often.
Abby is the daughter of South Carolina's senator. Doss is a struggling artist. He saves her from being raped, and in turn begins their life together. Ten years into their marriage, she discovers breast cancer. I didn't like that part of it, but the love and resp...more
Abby is the daughter of South Carolina's senator. Doss is a struggling artist. He saves her from being raped, and in turn begins their life together. Ten years into their marriage, she discovers breast cancer. I didn't like that part of it, but the love and resp...more
I listened to the 5 hour, abridged CD version of this book. This is essentially a sweet, charming love story, and it succeeds on that level. Maybe it is because of the abridgement tho, but I never did uncderstand why these two fell in love in the first place or why they continue to love each other. That isn't made clear. It also shifts in time quite alot, which is not indicated in the audio book, so it takes a bit to pick it up again when they do make that switch. It is too cliched that he is a...more
I have a bone to pick with Mr. Martin. What a beautiful story this could have been. It was, in parts. A struggling artist from the wrong side of the tracks marries a hot-shot politician's debutant daughter and after 14 years of marriage, and an unsuccessful battle against her cancer, they spend her last days crossing off her wish list while rowing down St. Mary's River. That would have been enough and 4-5 star material. But Martin didn't stop there, adding in a hurricane, crossing paths with hoo...more
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I grew up in Jacksonville, FL, on the St. John’s river. Somewhat of a Huck Finn childhood. Most afternoons were spent mullet fishing, canoeing, pegging cars with overripe tangerines—it really got fun when the red tail lights lit and the reverse gears ground metal on metal, or the backyard Superbowl which we replayed most everyday. Through high school, football was my life. School was the avenue th...more
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“The river never changes. it may alter it's path a bit, but it never changes. It's us who change. We come back here and we're are different. Not it."
Form can't be extracted from the essence like some broth reduction."
This river's taught me a good bit. Probably why I don't leave here. It winds, weaves, snakes around. Rarely goes the same twice. But, in the end, it always ends up in the same place and the gift is never the same." ..."it's the journey that matters.”
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More quotes…
Form can't be extracted from the essence like some broth reduction."
This river's taught me a good bit. Probably why I don't leave here. It winds, weaves, snakes around. Rarely goes the same twice. But, in the end, it always ends up in the same place and the gift is never the same." ..."it's the journey that matters.”
