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The Quest for Anna Klein
The Quest for Anna Klein
The Quest for Anna Klein
Audiobook11 hours

The Quest for Anna Klein

Written by Thomas H. Cook

Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Thomas H. Cook's intricate plots and spellbinding prose won him the coveted Edgar Award. The Quest for Anna Klein begins after the 9/11 attacks, when researcher Paul Crane sits down to interview elderly New York City resident Thomas Danforth. But Thomas' thoughts drift to a different era, when a conspiracy to kill Hitler led him to the beautiful and mysterious linguist Anna Klein.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 19, 2011
ISBN9781501992933
Author

Thomas H. Cook

Thomas H. Cook (b. 1947) is the author of nearly two dozen critically lauded crime novels. Born in Fort Payne, Alabama, Cook published his first novel, Blood Innocents, in 1980 while serving as the book review editor of Atlanta magazine. Two years later, on the release of his second novel, The Orchids, he turned to writing full-time. Cook published steadily through the 1980s, penning such works as the Frank Clemons trilogy, a series of mysteries starring a jaded cop. He found breakout success with The Chatham School Affair (1996), which won an Edgar Award for best novel. His work has been praised by critics for his attention to psychology and the lyrical nature of his prose. Besides mysteries, Cook has written two true-crime books, Early Graves (1992) and the Edgar-nominated Blood Echoes (1993), as well as several literary novels, including Elena (1986). He lives and works in New York City.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Margo Crane, hero on Once Upon a River, is a character not easily dismissed or forgotten. When she is suddenly cast out (her mother runs off and her father is killed) she begins a life of getting by. At times taken in, other times, taken advantage of, the only constant is The River. Accused of being "raised by wolves" Margo is not wild as much as new and unsure. We see her come to terms with the losses and temptations of life. This is a survival guide in every sense of the word (graphic descriptions of animal skinning, e.g.) as Margo tries "to figure out how to live." Beautiful writing, sure voice, and a very real sense of time and place make this book a winner.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Seven years I lived in a small town in a Michigan county described as being a downstate 'Up North,' an area of wide open spaces and farmland punctuated by woods and wild. We knew a self-sufficient family who supplied all their food by hunting, fishing, and gardening. I heard stories about family feuds and wild lives. The local library book club was led by a retired professor from Kalamazoo. The group wanted to read Bonnie Jo Campbell's book Once Upon a River because of the setting--the rural area around the Stark and Kalamazoo Rivers just a half hour away. The book was so popular that the library couldn't get enough copies of the book for the group and we read another book.As I finally read Once Upon a River, sexual assault and abuse have been in the national conversation. Women everywhere are sharing their stories. Meanwhile, reports warn against eating fish from Michigan's rivers tainted with PFAS, including the Kalamazoo River. The rivers in the book, which is set around 1980, are polluted by factories. I had picked up another timely book. Or perhaps a timeless book.Once Upon a River is about Margo whose hero is Annie Oakley. She is a deadly shot, can prepare game, fish and travel the river, avoiding the water contaminated by factories. Margo is a beautiful young girl who does not understand life or herself, and who is preyed upon by men. She confuses sex with safety and protection. At fifteen Margo does not yet understand that she has been raped. The rape is witnessed, leading to a series of catastrophic events. With no mother or father, and unable to trust her remaining family, Margo takes her grandfather's boat to live alone on the river. She finds temporary shelter with a series of men. With each relationship, she grows in her understanding of what is right and wrong, who she is, and what she wants for herself.Campbell's writing is exquisite, vividly descriptive. Margo is an unforgettable character, strong yet vulnerable, negligent of her outer beauty that lures men, capable of skinning a muskrat or shooting a man. With its beautiful writing, unique character and setting, and timeless themes, I would heartily recommend it for book clubs.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set on a river in Michigan, this is the story of Margo, a teenager who has lived her whole life in the insular community of Murrayville with her extended family. Margo has always loved being on the river and hunting, and has few friends outside of her family. Her mother leaves to "find herself, " and Margo makes the best of living with just her father. But when she is raped by her uncle, an escalation of violence leading to her father's death prompts her to set out in her boat to find her mother. After a series of relationships, some very unhealthy, she comes to terms with living her life in her own way. A very satisfying read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had been eagerly waiting for this one; I read Campbell’s short-story collection, [American Salvage], last year and loved it. Bleak, despondent, poignant realism set among the economically and socially marginalized in middle America."Once Upon a River" expands on one of the stories from the collection. In a (slightly spoilerish) nutshell: Margo is fifteen when she is sexually abused by her uncle. Her attempt to reconcile what happened goes terribly awry and leads to the violent death of her father. Margo then takes to the river to find her mother, who had run off a few years before. Margo is determined to shape a different life for herself, one of self-sufficiency on the river, although she repeatedly finds that she has to rely on help from others, often men, with mixed results."Once Upon a River" has been described as a modern Huckleberry Finn with a female protagonist. I don't find this comparison to be particularly apt. Rather, I see Campbell's work as more akin to the 19th-century French realists and Margo as more a modern-day Gervaise: a stubborn and practical survivalist. I’m not sure how I feel about the book. The writing is effortlessly lyrical, beautifully rendering both the mundane and the grotesque. I’m a big fan of the brutal realism sans pity at which Campbell excels. And I appreciate that Campbell is attempting to create a strong, self-realized, “real” teenage girl who owns her strength and her sexuality.But . . . Margo is a teenage runaway, who drops out of high school, has sexual relations with multiple men twice her age (and sometimes older), spends much of her time homeless, and generally lacks positive adult role models. Although she certainly has pluck (and I disagree with some LT reviewers who see her as dim), I'm not sure if her actions are evidence of a strong and self-realized woman or of a naïve and exploited girl. She’s much too young to appreciate the consequences of her choices---as apparent in her evolving reaction to two violent acts she herself commits.Of course, this confusion just makes me like the novel more. I like books that challenge my preconceived notions, that force me to think about issues of sexuality and consent; social ideas of age and adulthood; life and death; concepts of justice; and so on.So although I don’t completely agree with what I think was the author’s intent---to present Margo as a strong, self-realized heroine---I admire Campbell’s ability to evince a world where social ideals and clear-cut values become muddied by social and economic realities. And to show it with an unflinching respect for the people who inhabit that world.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    ONCE UPON A RIVER by Bonnie Jo Campbell begins with description of the natural surroundings in the rural Michigan area where the story takes place and Margo Crane’s interaction with them. Margo is a teenager. Maybe because I’m an adult and teenagers who aren’t my relatives bore me, this wasn’t a good beginning for me. The book continues with Margo’s story.•She’s gorgeous.•She doesn’t talk much.•She is exceptionally good with a gun.•Her grandfather Murray had one of his children, her father, out of wedlock. His other son, Cal, and Cal’s family live right across the Snake River from her family.•She has a beautiful mother who hated the life in rural Michigan so took off, promising to return for Margo, except she didn’t. •Margo lives with her very short father who did work at a metal shop and now works at a grocery store for much less money.That Margo is gorgeous turns out to be a problem. While most would count this as a lucky asset, in her case, it just means trouble. That’s because, in this book, too many grown men in rural Michigan can’t keep their hands off beautiful teenage girls.And Margo says nothing. Her father (who Margo thinks of as Crane, their last name) wants to go to the police in one instance, but she will say nothing. And she continues to say nothing when she should be speaking up, maybe yelling, kicking, and screaming, throughout the book.Many writers use this device, but it is not a good sign. That is, when a character is wronged but refuses to talk about it or defend herself, it seems that the author couldn’t think of a better reason for what happens next. Besides, this device is terribly frustrating and makes the story predictable.Other readers of ONCE UPON A RIVER post mostly praise for the book on the Internet. So I think it must be a good book for some. But it’s not for everyone.My trouble with this book is that it didn’t grab me. That’s because no character, Margo in particular, was given enough depth for me to care about her. If you think, as I do, that this style is more appropriate for a short story, then this book may not be for you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story of Margo Crane, who we meet as a 14 year old. She is living with her father in a house on the Stark River. Her mother left the family a few years back, apparently running off with another man. She is part of the Murray family, who own the metal fabricating plant in the town that is named after them. At a family Thanksgiving dinner at the Murray's, which is right across the river from her place, she has sex with her Uncle Cal, who takes her off into the barn for that purpose. She does not really understand what is happening. Her father finds out and Margo is forbidden from having anything to do with the Starks. She misses playing with her cousins and becomes even quieter that the had been. Margo is a fantastic shot with a gun, and she fancies herself a modern Annie Oakley. She can't pass up shooting any buck deer she sees, even if it is out of season or she is already past her limit. The next Thanksgiving she sneaks across the river to the Murray's dinner, even though her father has forbidden her, and she shoots at her Uncle Cal's penis as he is relieving himself outdoors, just as her father is arriving there to bring her home. Being a great shot, she hit her target. The end result is that her father is killed by her cousin who thought that he had shot at Cal. This leaves Margo alone, and she takes off to live on the river.Margo then has a series of connections with men living on the river. She moves up and down the river, trying to survive while at the same time trying to find and reconnect with her mother. She lives off the land, hunting and fishing and sometimes stealing food from the farmers. She knows how to get by on her own. She is a wonderful character. She had to grow up very quickly after her rape and her father's death, and she did. She never had any doubt about her ability to make it, and I didn't either, although I always wanted better for her than she was getting in life. To someone like me anyway, who loves the outdoors and has done my share of backpacking, her desire to live outside of society felt real and understandable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Margo is a 16 year old living near the Stark River in northern Michigan. She lives with her father in a small house after her mother ran off a few years back. Margo is an excellent shot with a rifle, can hunt and fish along with skinning animals. She wants to grow up to be like Annie Oakley.A series of incidents come together to cause Margo to run away. Margo now uses the river as her home and tries to get by on her own. She runs into many different people on the river and it is interesting to read her reactions to them. Margo didn't have many close relationships growing up and takes some time learning to how deal with people along with trying to make a life on the river.Overall, I enjoyed the book even though some of Margo's choices, particularly involving men, seemed a little odd. She was a difficult protagonist to root for at times and then she did something that put me back on her side. I especially liked the characters of Smoke and Fishbone towards the end. The ending made me want to know more about what happens to Margo as it didn't quite leave me satisfied. Still, this was an excellent read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I mostly liked "Once Upon a River". Campbell's book conjures up a carefully-drawn backwoods world populated by a community of hardscrabble individuals who (to greatly varying degrees) manage to survive and occasionally even thrive in spite of difficult circumstances. Because this world is so different from my own, however, I admit that I struggled quite a bit to accept it -- and, in the end, I was unable to give over completely to it. Even so, I was drawn to the story of Margo Crane, the book's teenage protagonist, as she stumbled, recovered, and ultimately grew up into adulthood over a period of three years. Within the story's context, Campbell convincingly infused Margo with a credible and consistent value system and attitude towards the world (both natural and human). In addition, I admired Campbell's skill in allowing the reader to get into Margo's very independent-minded (but also taciturn and hence, to some degree, enigmatic) head and (to a certain extent) follow along as she figured out and revised her understanding of who she was, what she wanted from life, and how she could live authentically. I was pleased that Margo wound up in a good place by book's end -- even if the outcome struck me as more favorable than seemed plausible given Margo's inscrutable personality and the numerous difficult circumstances of the world she occupied.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Set on a river in Michigan, this is the story of Margo, a teenager who has lived her whole life in the insular community of Murrayville with her extended family. Margo has always loved being on the river and hunting, and has few friends outside of her family. Her mother leaves to "find herself, " and Margo makes the best of living with just her father. But when she is raped by her uncle, an escalation of violence leading to her father's death prompts her to set out in her boat to find her mother. After a series of relationships, some very unhealthy, she comes to terms with living her life in her own way. A very satisfying read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not a book I particularly loved. Had a very difficult time with that "willing suspension of disbelief." It just wouldn't kick in. Too much a modern fairy tale, I guess. But I am certain that a lot of people, particularly women, will indeed love this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Young girl Margo sleeps her way up and down the river with everyone. I found the whole premise rather disturbing and not at all entertaining.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    As someone who grew up in a rural area (near the "Winter's Bone" setting), I could easily relate to the nature in this book: weather, river, animals, birds. I felt Campbell did an excellent job of using the river and nature in general as a backdrop for this haunting yet irritating book. So five stars for that.Now, the main character of Margo is a different story. I found her sometimes believable, heart wrenching at times, and sordid at other times. I'm assuming this is supposed to be a story of an extremely independent young woman who takes charge of her own life. However, I would have found it much more creditable if she hadn't been quite so good with the gun. Being a good shot and shooting rabbits is one thing; shooting a cigarette out of a man's mouth or shooting a muskrat in the eye so as not to ruin the pelt (shot doesn't even come out the other side)is just too much of a stretch. In my mind, it comes close to ruining her creditably. The emphasis on her beauty is also disconcerting. Why was that so important? Margo's life was rough. Days without a bath (or toothbrush) might hide that beauty but several men see beyond that. What if she hadn't been so pretty? Is beauty some kind of essential for creating this independent "wolf child?" So two starts for that.For the most part I found the other characters to be interesting and believable. However, what's with the Indian? Who is this guy (and I don't just mean his name). There were others that were extremely well drawn and memorable. So four stars for that.Finally, I think I enjoyed reading some of the reviews of this book almost as much as the book. It is definitely one that causes a wide range of reactions. I too thought of Ree Dolly in "Winter's Bone". (If I had to chose between memorable characters, I would choose Ree.) It was interesting to see how much some people read into this story and how repulsive others found it to be. I find it somewhere in the middle.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I heard Bonnie Jo Campbell read from Once Upon a River] at the Iowa City Book Festival, it jumped to the top of my TBR pile. In this book, Campbell tells the story of Margo Crane, a sixteen-year-old girl who lives along the Stark River near Kalamazoo, Michigan. Margo's mother has left her, and when she runs into trouble with her extended family, she sets out in a boat to find her mother. Margo is resourceful. She is an excellent shooter, much like her hero Annie Oakley, and she is successful in living off the land and the river. But, time after time, her relationships with other people end badly. It is not until late in the book that Margo finds Smoke, an old man who really seems to understand her. These chapters were my favorite because of the way Smoke allowed Margo to just be.In addition to being a good storyteller, Campbell also writes beautifully. She uses her own experiences growing up along the St. Joseph River to capture the small details of life on the river. Her descriptions took me back to my childhood days of wading in creeks and catching minnows. Here's just a sample from the very first page:"The Stark River flowed around the oxbox at Murrayville the way blood flowed through Margo Crane's heart. She rowed upstream to see wood ducks, canvasbacks, and ospreys and to search for tiger salamanders in the ferns. She drifted downstream to find painted turtles sunning on fallen trees and to count the herons in the heronry beside the Murrayville cemetery. She tied up her boat and followed shallow feeder streams to collect crayfish, watercress, and tiny wild strawberries. Her feet were toughened against sharp stones and broken glass. When Margo swam, she swallowed minnows alive and felt the Stark River move inside her." Margo is a memorable character, and Campbell's words make her leap off the page. This is definitely one of my favorite books of the year.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Audiobook narrated by Susan BennettFrom the book jacket - After the violent death of her father, sixteen-year-old Margo Crane takes to the Stark River in her grandfather’s rowboat, with only a few supplies and a biography of her hero Annie Oakley, in search of her mother. But the river, Margo’s 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. My reactionsI hardly know what to write about this novel. Very early on I was disturbed by Margo and the adults around her – or should I say the adult who was NOT around her, specifically her mother. I wanted to hug her and keep her safe and warm. And then I wanted to shake her till her teeth rattled. I was distressed by her circumstances, her poor choices, her acting out (specifically when it came to men), her apparent lack of any sort of moral compass. And yet … she is a compelling character and I couldn’t just turn away from her. Still, this is no Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s central character had a certain innocence about him, and Margo seems to lack innocence. This is no mere adventure, her very survival depends on her ability to make a go of it. I had to keep reminding myself about how young she is; even Campbell keeps reminded the reader of Margo’s real age. The ending is both hopeful and heart-breaking. Susan Bennett does a fine job narrating the audio version. She has a tendency to draw an audible breath just before each sentence, and that “breathy” delivery was a distraction until I got used to it. Her pacing was good, and she has enough skill as a voice artist to differentiate the characters.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to this strange but compelling story while sewing. I did not want to stop the story so I got a lot of projects done! This is my first book by Bonnie Jo and I feel she did a wonderful job depicting a culture that many of us really do not cross paths with. I'm sure there are those who think this was a bit far fetched but it is reality for many families. I enjoyed listening to the narrator and found myself feeling deeply the emotions of each of the characters. If you are looking for a good story that includes fractured family relationships, hard living, nature along a river and what its like to live among the wildlife there, a girl forced to learn to make it all alone, not trusting yet needing to trust complete strangers for help, then you should give Once Upon a River a try. I recently listened to a story called Wolf Road by Beth Lewis and I kept thinking how similar these girls were. I have had Q Road on my to read list for a couple of years but kept putting it off but now that I have read (listened to)one of Bonnie Jo Campbell's other books I am looking forward to starting that book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sixteen-year old Margo lives in rural Michigan along the Stark River. The novel opens strongly with descriptions of her affinity to river life. She's happiest when drifting alone in the teak boat she inherited from her grandfather. Margo has a special knack for shooting and God help any animal that comes within her sights. There is a terrible act of violence early on and Margo takes to the river to escape. I've read novels like this before. Part Odyssey, part Huckleberry Finn, part Swamplandia!, part Winter's Bone. The writing here is solid and I liked it best when Margo's survival instincts and newfound sexuality were explored. But the second half let me down. I didn't want her to settle where she did or with whom she did. What happened to the earlier tension and desperation? I wanted Margo's journey to continue.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bonnie Jo Campbell does down-and-out characters very well -- and she hits another bull?s eye with her portrayal of Margaret Louise Crane in her latest book. Sixteen-year-old Margo is a true river sprite who feels most at home in nature. She doesn?t talk much but knows the language of sexuality and how to use it to get what she needs. She acts like a woman but has the heart of a girl who has suffered a loss and wants to find her missing mother.This book is part fairy tale and part odyssey. It is a beautiful story about a wild girl who doesn?t want to be tamed. Ms. Campbell has taken the story of Annie Oakley and given it a modern slant. It makes for a good read about a comely maiden who is sorely abused and escapes to search for her mother and ends up finding herself. I didn?t always like Margo, but I ended up respecting her for knowing herself and not giving up on the life she was meant to live.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3 1/2 There were many things I liked about this novel, her descriptions of all the animals and plants along the river were wonderful, the 16 yr. old character's love for the river and the many characters she meets living along the river. Yet I felt a disconnect from her, it was like she was watching herself experience things but not really taking part or something like that. I did, however, love the ending. It was very fitting and one of the best endings of the books I have read lately.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Once Upon A River by Bonnie Jo Campbell is a book that I am having a hard time defining. I would interpret this book loosely as the coming of age story of a young girl. Margo Crane lives along the Stark River in rural Michigan and is truly a river girl, brave, independent and well able to provide for herself yet over and over again she becomes a victim. A victim of neglect, abuse, incest, rape and violence. Margo models herself after her heroine, Annie Oakley. She is a expert marksman and hunter. Abandoned by her mother at fourteen, she lives with her father but within a year he is killed during a family ruckus. She then flees to her sanctuary, the river. Relying upon her hunting skills and a assortment of men that meets on her journey she travels both up and down the river learning how to survive this life she finds herself in.A strange and compelling read, I never warmed to Margo or any of the characters, except the dogs, yet I was fascinated and could not stop turning the pages. Beautifully written the words flow very much like the river, lyrical, almost poetic is scope, yet at times both cold and unemotional. With such complex and deep themes, Once Upon A River is a book that I know I will be mulling over for some time and Bonnie Jo Campbell is an author that I will not hesitate to revisit.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Difficult but compelling. Margo is a 15 year old girl when through tragic circumstances she finds herself alone in the company river town where she was born. This book is her journey of several years where she survives by her wits and wiles. She is skillfull in physical survival but very young in other ways resulting in painful and bad choices in men, both for her and the men. Her love of the river and relationship with Smoke are beautiful. Great writing, page turning, emotional ride but some may find it disturbing. I think it's worth the discomfort.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    4 1/2 stars. A rather somber literary tale about a 17 year old girl from the backwoods of Michigan, where she lives hunting and fishing amidst her kin who live next to the Stark River. An unfortunate sexual encounter with her uncle leads to tragedy, and she runs off to live on her own down the river a short way, with an inherited teak boat. She's a very independent girl, a dead eye shot, and a bit of a mix between the storied Indian maiden (though she's white), Annie Oakley, and Huck Finn. She may be victimized and poor, but she's no victim, and she owns her own sexual identity. The novel details her emotional growth as she encounters and creates relationships with the visitors and residents in the rural areas alongside the river. Very nicely written and thoughtful, not very cheery, but wonderful characterization and sense of place. I could see it winning awards, it's so well written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The dedication reads, "To All the Children Raised by Wolves." What more do you need to know? Men should be asking themselves, "Am I a Brian or a Michael?"
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    adult fiction; strong heroine. There are some hunting/animal-skinning scenes, so I probably wouldn't recommend to the squirmish/vegans, but overall enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pearl Ruled: ONCE UPON A RIVER by BONNIE JO CAMPBELL (p82)Oh heavy, heavy sigh. I cannot make myself read more of this beautifully crafted book. Campbell's trademark gorgeous sentences are not enough to propel me any further into the life of sixteen-year-old Margo Crane. I don't want to read about Margo's consensual sexual adventures with an adult man.I just don't.But let me tell you what's right with this book: The writing. Oh. Oh. Campbell is describing a harsh and unjust world in words that make me vibrate like a tuning fork that's just found its note. Campbell's descriptions of Michigan make me ache to see it for myself. Her deft, cruel characterizations are inarguably fine...nice, in the original sense of the word...I don't want to use the word "precise" because that conjures the spectre of Henry James, and that scares people off, but precise they are.I hate like poison that the beauty of the book, its lovely wideness and its supremely inviting lushness, are closed to me by my own shuddering disgust for teenaged girls and heterosexual congress. But that, I fear, is where I am and what I feel.DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A WARN-OFF!! I recommend to the straight people who like gorgeous writing and coming-of-age stories that this book rise to the top of the pile immediately! If it's your first try at a Bonnie Jo Campbell book, so much the better, and so much the more exciting for you. She is a talent to be savored and supported with book purchases.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Coming of age story about a girl raised in nature. The main character is very self sufficient and wants to be the next Annie Oakley. She is an excellent shot and feeds herself by killing and skinning animals. Her Mother abandoned her and she is trying to make sense of her world without much guidance. Her fatal flaw is that she is beautiful and men pay attention to her. She learns some difficult lessons about love along the way and has to come to terms with how she decides to live her life and deal with the consequences of her choices.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Liked this but thought American Salvage was better. Could have done with less killing of animals...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautifully written tale of Margo, a young girl who goes in search of her mother when her father is killed. I loved this book, couldn't put it down. Looking forward to reading more by this author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an advance reader copy that I won on Goodreads. Campbell presents an excellent character study. The writing is taut and effective. Margot Crane is a sixteen year old girl, living in tension with her extended family along the Stark River in Michigan. After being abandoned by her mother, and ultimately, after the violent death of her father, she finds herself in the position of fending for herself totally alone, with no one in the world to turn to for support. She navigates the treacherous waters of her beloved river, and faces all the dangers that a 16 year old girl must as she travels alone in the world upon it.I think Campbell presents a very complex character in Margot - she's matter of fact, practical, an excellent marks woman, and hunter, who is willing to skin and gut her own kills, but who, at the same time, is shocking naive about the world happening around her, and seems ill prepared to cope with the challenges to is confronted with in terms of relating to people and making good decisions about the relationships most important to her. The river and wilderness are excellent thematic partners for the dark places Margot finds she must navigate in her own life, and she feels the consequence of each choice she makes quite keenly. Beautifully written and complex. A great find for me this summer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'd like to give this to my imaginary future daughter when she's about 14. Gritty and heartfelt and beautifully written.