{"product_id":"9781250165510","title":"The River of Kings : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Taylor Brown\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the Top 25 Best Novels of 2017 by Paste Magazine!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The most exciting literary adventure fiction I've read since \u003ci\u003eDeliverance.\u003c\/i\u003e” –Howard Frank Mosher, author of \u003ci\u003eGod's Kingdom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings, \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of\u003ci\u003e Fallen Land\u003c\/i\u003e Taylor Brown artfully weaves three narrative strands—two brothers’ journey down an ancient river, their father’s tangled past, and the buried history of the river’s earliest people—to evoke a legendary place and its powerful hold on the human imagination.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Altamaha River, Georgia’s “Little Amazon,” is one of the last truly wild places in America.  Crossed by roads only five times in its 137 miles, the black-water river is home to thousand-year-old virgin cypress, direct descendants of eighteenth-century Highland warriors, and a staggering array of rare and endangered species.  The Altamaha is even rumored to harbor its own river monster, as well as traces of the oldest European fort in North America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrothers Hunter and Lawton Loggins set off to kayak the river, bearing their father’s ashes toward the sea. Hunter is a college student, Lawton a Navy SEAL on leave; they were raised by an angry, enigmatic shrimper who loved the river, and whose death remains a mystery that his sons are determined to solve.  As the brothers proceed downriver, their story alternates with that of Jacques le Moyne, the first European artist in North America, who accompanied a 1564 French expedition that began as a search for riches and ended in a bloody confrontation with Spanish conquistadors and native tribes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwining past and present in one compelling narrative, and illustrated with drawings that survived the 1564 expedition, \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is Taylor Brown’s second novel: a dramatic and rewarding adventure through history, myth, and the shadows of family secrets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"I read Taylor Brown's new novel in a state of astonishment--at the bold undertaking, the exhilarating narrative, and the vivid language. I was mesmerized by the way he weaves three separate stories together over time to create a startling portrait of America's soul.\" --Bobbie Ann Mason, author of \u003ci\u003eIn Country\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Girl in the Blue Beret\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With language as rich as floodplain soil, \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is a stunning Southern epic of tremendous heart and scope. Taylor Brown takes risks few other writers would chance and somehow manages to traverse those waters with an astounding grace and beauty.” –David Joy, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Weight Of This World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e Taylor Brown offers a brilliant braided history, water-tight and blood-bound. Each strand of time is laid atop the one before it to make an intricate fable: two brothers, paddling back against the past, and whatever monsters lurk beneath its surface. This book haunts itself. And Mr. Brown keeps getting better and better.” –Ashley Warlick, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Arrangement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The most exciting literary adventure fiction I've read since \u003ci\u003eDeliverance.\u003c\/i\u003e Taylor Brown's \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e has it all: crackling drama, unforgettable characters, myth, the unspoiled natural world, love, laughter, and tragedy – all rendered in Brown's gorgeous, precise prose. \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is truly a great American novel.” –Howard Frank Mosher, author of \u003ci\u003eGod's Kingdom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like a great body of water itself, \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is one moment grace and serenity, and the next moment hazard and threat, shifting in wonderfully unexpected ways, yet always in possession of a natural beauty you cannot help but admire.” –Michael Farris Smith, author of \u003ci\u003eDesperation Road \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRivers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Taylor Brown spins fantastic and riveting historical fiction like no one else.  \u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings\u003c\/i\u003e is engrossing, exciting, poetic, with surprising moments of tenderness, and crafted with a master hand. The writing exhibits shades of Philipp Meyer, Richard Ford, Annie Proulx, and Anthony Doerr, but every book by Brown is all his own. If your curiosity is piqued by an exciting river adventure with rich character study and language that fairly leaps off the page, look no further—you've found your book.” –Andria Williams, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Longest Night\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Captures the essence of an enchanting place with a story combining adventure, family drama, and local history.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe River of Kings \u003c\/i\u003eis almost impossibly visual—cinematic in the best sense. Like Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx, Brown possesses rare and wild gifts, writing with the arresting precision and unremitting intensity that can keep a reader’s jaw clenched for books at a time.\" --\u003ci\u003ePaste Magazine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"For all its twists, this is a novel worth every turn of the page.\" - \u003ci\u003eThe Providence Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250165510\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"St. Martin's Griffin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40673464484046,"sku":"9781250165510","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_9db81497-fdfa-432a-9a38-05f20803239d.jpg?v=1639884441","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250165510","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}