Once Upon a River: A Novel

About this book

From the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalistan odyssey of a novel about a girls search for love and identity. Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father in which she is complicit Margo takes to the Stark River in her boat with only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley in search of her vanished mother. But the river Margos childhood paradise is a dangerous place for a young woman traveling alone and she must be strong to survive using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to the decision of what price she is willing to pay for her choices.