Peace Like a River

"Leif Enger ... is a natural-born storyteller, and his novel moves in a current that can be poetic and slow or as tumultuous as whitewater rapids. This novel has the power to convince that, despite sorrow, human experience is a miracle of ordinary truth and extraordinary love." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This month in our ward's book club we have been reading Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. And I sprinted through it today so that I would be ready to discuss it for our group. But I think I would have read it this solidly anyways since it is so well-written. I think this is some of the most stupendous prose I have ever read (with some of the greatest poetry interspersed). And I grew very attached to the characters very quickly.

In the novel, the boy Rueben remembers an unforgettable year of his childhood in a small town during the mid-twentieth century. When his brother, Davy, shoots two local bullies who break into their home and then escapes fom prison, Rueben, his sister Sweden, and their father take a cross-country journey to find their outlaw brother and son. They are followed by a federal agent who believes the family will lead him straight to the convict Davy. Reuben watches his father battle between love for his son and a desire to do the right thing in this haunting story about family and miracles.