Peace Like a River

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

This article is about the novel by Leif Enger. For the song written by Paul Simon, see Paul Simon (album)

Peace Like a River
Author(s)	Leif Enger
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel Drama
Publisher	Grove/Atlantic Inc.
Publication date	2001
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp
ISBN	978-0-8021-3925-2

Peace Like a River (2001) is a best-selling novel by Leif Enger, who took the title from the lyrics of the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul", which was performed at his wedding. Enger wrote the novel to amuse his family, taking story suggestions from his children and giving the lead character asthma to encourage one of his sons, who also has asthma.

Plot summary

The novel, set largely in 1962 is narrated by Reuben Land, the asthmatic eleven-year-old protagonist, and includes his older brother Davy and younger sister Swede. His father, Jeremiah, a school janitor, is a deeply-spiritual Protestant but occasionally performs miracles, of whom Reuben is the sole witness.

The Lands' lifestyle is disrupted when troublemakers Israel Finch and Tommy Basca attempt to molest Davy's girlfriend and are prevented by Jeremiah; whereafter they attempt revenge by kidnapping Swede before returning her unharmed. Having provoked them to enter his own house, Davy kills them and is tried for murder.

At the trial, Reuben is the only eyewitness of the killing; and though determined not to betray his brother, he gives a compromising testimony, ensuring the probability of a conviction. Before the conclusion of the trial, Davy escapes the jail and flees. Search for him is personified by a federal agent, Martin Andreeson, who vainly asks the family for information on Davy's whereabouts (of which they know no more than he).

Jeremiah becomes ill with pneumonia, leaving Reuben and Swede to operate the household until his recovery. After Jeremiah is recovered, they learn that traveling salesman Tin Lurvy has died and left them his Airstream trailer, which they take in search of Davy; at first to their friend August Schultz's farm, having received suggestion that Davy might be there. When they arrive, they find Davy has come and gone, and pursue him, seeking continually to avoid Martin Andreeson.

Later in the journey, the family visit a service station and remain at length as guests of its widowed owner Roxanna, who assumes a maternal role toward the children and (toward the end of the novel) later marries Jeremiah. Reuben discovers Davy by accident, and finds him accompanied by the eccentric Jape Waltzer and his ward Sara.

Thereafter Reuben visits them several times, being forbidden by Davy to tell the family. Waltzer claims to have "bought" Sara from her father in Utah and raises her with the intention of later marrying her. Eventually, Andreeson reaches the family again, having suspected that Davy is nearby; and Jeremiah, after much prayer, co-operates with him. Having suspected that Waltzer will kill Andreeson if discovered, Reuben leads a search party to the hideout; but deliberately misleads the searchers, causing one to be injured. Despite this, the posse discover the hideout, but find it abandoned. They find Andreeson's discarded fedora, leading them to believe he has been killed. (He was actually bludgeoned to death by Jape Waltzer and dumped into a vein of burning lignite).

The family returns to their home in Minnesota, where Jeremiah marries Roxanna. Three months thereafter Davy appears at their home with Sara, claiming that Jape had decided to marry Sara and, the latter objecting, that Davy fled with her. Having pursued them, Waltzer fires on Jeremiah and Reuben.

In the next chapter, Reuben undergoes a near-death experience displaying himself in an afterlife wherein his breathing is normal and he can run freely. There, he and his father approach a city, apparently of the dead, to which Jeremiah is admitted and Reuben forbidden. Reuben then awakes to find his father dead and himself still breathing, and his asthma cured.

In the epilogue, Swede becomes a novelist, whereas Reuben sometimes visits Davy (who lives in a small Canadian town on the plains); but concludes his narrative by reference to his sight of his father's miracles and the afterlife glimpsed by himself. Reuben also marries Sara. Jape escapes crime and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Awards and nominations

• Winner, ALA Alex Awards; best adult novel for teens.
• Winner, Independent Publisher Book Award
• Book Sense book of the Year (selected by the Independent Booksellers of America)

External links

• A review from Bookreporter.com.
• A reading group guide.
• [1].