This book was hugely popular a few years ago (almost 20 years ago) and although I read some apparently. similar books, I never did get to this one and I remained curious. Oh well. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be but it’s not bad after you get into it. Imo, it gets a wee bit flowery in language, mushy in sentiment but the story is good although slower than what’s mostly on the market these days (what I’m used to now).

*******
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
2000/ 324 pages
read by Chad Lowe 11h 34m
rating: 6 / religious fiction
*******

It’s definitely about a family with problems and inspiration to get through them. After serious provocation, 16-year old Danny Land shoots and kills two teenagers who walk into his family’s home in the middle of the night. It might certainly be called self-defense.

The main characters are the 1st person narrator, Reuben, age 11, his younger sister Swede, age 9, the older Davy and their father Jeremiah. Mom is deceased. After Davy is arrested, put in jail and guess to trial it becomes obvious he’ll be going to prison. So he escapes and the family chases after him. They feel “led” in some way. .

Dad is a devout Christian and there are plenty of miracles as the story unfolds. The kids have been raised to expect them but the kids are coming of age and growing a tad skeptical.

I kept reading because the characters are so nicely drawn I cared about them and I wanted to find out what happened. (Also, I tend to finish books I buy.)