Awards
2002 L.A. Times Book of the Year
From Powells.com
Leif Enger's debut novel is a case study in intangibles. Each year, dozens
of novels are published that have all their ducks in a row: in richly
imagined worlds, their well-drawn characters struggle through compelling
conflicts toward revealing conclusions. But very few contain that imperceptible
extra that allows a story to speak directly to the reader's own longings,
to infiltrate their consciousness and alter their perception of the world.
In telling the story of his saintly father, fugitive brother, and precocious
sister, Enger's narrator, an eleven-year-old asthmatic named Reuben Land,
reveals a world in which the tragic is tempered by the miraculous, and
faith leads inexorably to sacrifice and redemption. When it was
first published in 2001, Peace Like a River was immediately championed
by readers across the country and became a surprise bestseller. In 2002,
it was chosen by independent booksellers as the Book Sense Book of the
Year, and remains, today, one of the most popular book club selections
in the country. Martin, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Leif Enger's rhapsodic novel about a father raising his three children in 1960s Minnesota is a breathtaking celebration of family, faith, and America's pioneering spirit. Through the voice of eleven-year-old Reuben, an asthmatic boy obsessed with cowboy stories,
Peace Like a River tells of the Land family's cross-country search for Reuben's outlaw older brother, who has been controversially charged with murder. Sprinkled with playful and warmhearted nods to biblical tales, classic American novels such as
Huckleberry Finn, the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the Westerns of Zane Grey,
Peace Like a River brilliantly incorporates the best elements of all these genres and ultimately earns its own prominent and enduring place on the shelf among them.
Reuben Land 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 thenceforth, but he is a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects that his father can overturn the laws of nature. When Reuben's older brother, Davy, kills two marauders who have come to harm the family, the town is divided between those who see him as a hero and those who see him as a cold-blooded murderer. On the morning of the trial, Davy escapes from his cell, and when his family finds out they decide to go forth into the unknown in search of him. With Jeremiah whose faith is the stuff of legend at the helm, the family covers territory far more glorious than even the Badlands, where they search for Davy from their Airstream trailer. By the time the journey is over, they will have traversed boundaries of a different nature entirely. Marked by a soul-expanding sense of place and a love of storytelling, Peace Like a River is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, a romance, and a heartfelt meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world.
Review
"It's the impassioned honesty of his quiet, measured narrative voice that gives weight and truth to the fantastic elements of this engrossing tale....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
Synopsis
Young Reuben Land has little doubt that miracles happen all around us, suspecting that his own father is touched by God. When his older brother flees a controversial murder charge, Reuben, along with his older sister and father, set off on a journey that will take them to the Badlands and through a landscape more extraordinary than they could have anticipated. Enger's novel is at once a heroic quest and a haunting meditation on the possibility of magic in the everyday world.
Synopsis
Leif Enger's debut novel, Peace Like A River, was launched to critical acclaim in 2001 and went on to sell over one million copies. Now a perennial, best-selling American classic, it is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, and a love story, in which "there is magic... none more potent that Leif Enger's prose" (Newsday). Enger brings us eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in the Midwest who has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been charged with murder. Their journey unfolds like a revelation, and its conclusion shows how family, love, and faith can stand up to the most terrifying of enemies, and the most tragic of fates.
About the Author
Leif Enger was raised in Osakis, Minnesota, and has worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio since 1984. He lives on a farm in Minnesota with his wife and two sons.