Go As A River by Shelley Read

NATIONAL BESTSELLER and GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FINALIST

Some books settle into your bones like river water soaking into stone. This is one of them.

Set against the raw beauty of Colorado’s high country, this stunning debut follows seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash as her carefully ordered world shatters in a single, transformative moment. When she meets Wilson Moon—a young drifter with a mysterious past—on an Iola street corner, their connection ignites a love story as dangerous as it is passionate. But when tragedy strikes, Victoria flees into the surrounding wilderness, where the mountains and the ever-flowing Gunnison River become her teachers in survival, resilience, and what it means to truly come home.

Inspired by the true story of Iola’s destruction in the 1960s, this is a novel about loss and love, about finding strength in the harshest landscapes, and about letting your life flow like water—gathering, adapting, finding its way forward even when dammed.

What readers are discovering:

• Gorgeous, immersive prose that brings Colorado’s wilderness to vivid life
• An unforgettable heroine whose journey will stay with you long after the final page
• A story that speaks to anyone who has ever had to rebuild themselves from the ground up

Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, The Four Winds, and Great Circle. Winner of the 2024 High Plains Book Award and the 2023 Reading the West Book Award, with over 1 million copies sold worldwide.

Come in from the salt air. Pour yourself something warm. Let this river carry you.

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