River

A tale of solitary travel and the spiritually healing powers of nature, this multilayered narrative follows a bereaved father as he kayaks his way through grief. The shallow stream in northwestern Nebraska where he starts his journey is all but inseparable from this lonely man's life—it's where he fell in love for the first time, had his first sexual encounters, and scattered the ashes of his son. Deemed a fitting place to realize his long overdue dream of building a boat and letting the river take him where it may, the man launches his kayak and soul into the water. With the angry last words of his son echoing in his head, the man abandons himself to the river and its whims with the hope that it will lead him to forgiveness and understanding of the tangled relationship he had with his estranged son.


Genre: Literary Fiction