A really good read - Go As A River
For once I’m not months, or even, let’s be honest, sometimes years, behind the reading curve. Because Go As A River was only published here in the UK two weeks ago at the time of writing.
Through my role as Editorial Director on Noon I was lucky enough to get an early copy, which I was so bowled over by I promptly pressed it into the hands of a lovely friend who was bed-bound after an operation, knowing with absolute certainty that it would be the perfect antidote to her frustratingly drawn-out post-op recovery.
That’s the reason why this isn’t my usual - meticulously styled, I’ll have you know - shot of the book, but rather one that gives you some sense of the majestic landscape in which its set. Although it could just as easily been an image of a grove of peach trees, because along with the imposing, and at times unforgiving, Colorado landscape that is the setting, the tender, sweet fruits are the recurring motive of this powerfully heart-wrenching story.
If you were a fan of Where the Crawdads Sing (which, as you’ll know from THIS REVIEW, I very definitely was) then Go As A River is likely to strike the same emotional cords with you. This too is a coming-of-age tale about a young girl and how the adversity and heart-ache of her childhood, the fierceness of her spirit and her determination to pursue the against-the-odds love she longs for, impact her journey into womanhood and a life forged through her courage and steadfast will to survive.
We first meet Victoria (Tori) Nash in the 1940s when she’s a teenager working gruelling long days on her family’s peach farm on the banks of the mighty Gunnison River in Iola, Colorado, alongside her taciturn father and dangerously volotile brother. We learn about the tragic death of her mother years before, and how her morosely monosalabic, disabled uncle came to be living with them.
An encounter with itinerant Native American Wilson Moon changes Tori’s life in far-reaching ways that will require all her strength, bravery and resilience to survive. Along the way she will encounter, and find unexpected comfort and support from, a cast of diversely memorable characters including her strange and reclusive neighbour, the woman who will become the custodian of what is most precious to her, and the friend who helps her forge a new life for herself, and find her way back to the one she was compelled to flee.
Whilst Tori will be forced to confront the unforgiving realities of racial prejudice and the savage power of nature, she will also discover that when all else seems lost, a connection with the natural world is the only certainty and balm. And that through finding her inner-strength she can, haltingly, at times exhaustingly, emerge from tragedy with her hope in tact.
Such is the power and beauty of the writing in Go As A River it’s almost impossible to believe that it’s the debut novel of writer Shelly Read, who has brought to such immersively enthralling life the wild landscape of Colorado where she and her ancestors have lived for five generations. I certainly hope it won’t be her last.
You’ll find lots more great read recommendations in the Try Something New section of the site
