From the Bookshelf of Closter Public Library…

[close] A book that manages to make a canoe trip and fishing interesting and suspenseful. Jack and Wynn are college friends who though from very different backgrounds share a love of canoeing and literature. They undertake a canoe trip to northern Canada, eschewing a satellite phone, but otherwise well stocked. The book is like the river trip; often quiet with peaceful interludes of beauty, but broken up with (and eventually consumed by) moments of suspense. There is an approaching forest fire, some shady characters and an unconscious woman. Great character development and unpredictable events, all done in a seemingly effortless prose style. I have read Dog Stars and Celine and enjoyed them both, in The River Heller has taken his writing to another level.