''Shelley Read''s lyrical voice is a force of nature, and when she lends it to a woman leading a hardscrabble life in rural Colorado , the result is tragic, uplifting - and completely unforgettable'' BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY _______________- What I''ve learnt about becoming is that it takes a long time. Nestled in the foothills of the Elk mountains and surrounded by sprawling forests, wandering bears and porcupine, the Gunnison river rushes by the tiny town of Iola. For seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash, the day promises to be as ordinary as the porridge and fried eggs she serves her family for breakfast. But just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a chance encounter in a young woman''s life upturn her world and erase everything she was before. The mysterious drifter who crosses Victoria''s path that afternoon will set in motion an unstoppable chain of events. Soon, she will be forced to run for the forests, leaving her life - and her most precious possession - behind. In this soaring, singing, compassionate novel, a breathtaking picture of our natural world - its trees and mountains and light - emerges. But it is the astonishing tale of female reslience and becoming that gives GO AS A RIVER its strength, its soul, and its possibility. ''A devastatingly beautiful debut, Go As a River , delivers so very much: the tenderness and curiosity of young love, the eternal pangs of loss, the brutality of racism, the sustaining power of nature even in the face of man''s destruction, and the precarious miracle of a mother''s love. Suffused with wisdom and compassion, this shattering testimony to life is one to be savored, treasured, shared'' MEG WAITE CLAYTON, author of The Postmistress of Paris