Summary

Set amid the beauty and wilderness of the Colorado mountains, an unforgettable and deeply moving story of a young woman who follows her heart. 

Seventeen year old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado – the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land but determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria’s chance encounter with Wil on a street corner profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the nearby mountains. Taking shelter in a small hut, she struggles to survive in the wilderness, with no clear notion of what her future will be. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the natural world the strength and meaning that set her on a quest to regain all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River rises to submerge her homeland – its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the midst of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendships, and finally, home – where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river – gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when the river is dammed. 

Why I chose to read this book
I was browsing the book section at Costco when I came upon Go as a River. The summary promised a beautiful and heartbreaking story – admittedly not my go-to style of novel but I realize the more I read these types of books, the more my heart opens, little by little.

Thoughts & Opinions
So many things about this book made me sad. Victoria, the main character, loses her mother at a young age. It’s sad when a girl is without a mother at such a precocious age, having to go through puberty without a female presence to explain everything. Some moms still don’t explain anything but you can at least refer to other women at school or in your family. But Victoria really doesn’t have any other woman she can consult for these matters. It’s also sad that she becomes the default caregiver, housemaid, cook, etc in a house full of men even though she is too young to take on such responsibility. The men are way more than capable of stepping up but because of the times and mentality, she’s a girl so she has to take care of the house and, of them. SHAME!! And disgusting, embarrassing for the men, are you that incapable or macho that you have a little girl do everything for you, ruining her life, not letting her be a child, her mom died and now she has to replace her. Come on, don’t you think she’s dealing with enough?? Ok, end of first rant.