As I wrote, and as Jack and Wynn became clear, I realized that Jack was a lot like me.

I didn’t mean to, but it usually happens that way. Are Wynn and Jack based on anyone you know? You’ve been very up front that Celine was inspired by your mother. I kept murmuring, “Whoa!” “Gaw!” It was thrilling. I write in a coffee shop, and as stuff happened I’d find myself shaking my head as if to clear it, and just stopping to breathe. There were these two best friends in a canoe, and a forest fire upwind, and then a couple of shady men camping on an island. When you began to write The River, how much did you know about what was going to happen to Wynn and Jack? It still raises the hair on the back of my neck. So The River began with the first line about smelling smoke and a string of lakes and led to a vivid image of the distant glow of a giant forest fire breathing at nightfall.

I just love how the music of the language can carry one straight to a strong visual image and strong emotion, and how, if one lets it run, it can also bring characters alive and lead straight into a story. I usually begin with music-the cadence and notes of a first line. The River has so many strong visual elements. But when they find an abandoned, badly injured woman, does this mean they are also being tracked by a would-be killer? Heller shares insight into his new novel and a look at his reading list. Things are bleak enough when Wynn and Jack’s idyllic camping trip is interrupted by a forest fire. Peter Heller finds success once again in The River, a riveting story of wilderness survival.

The River by Peter Heller