From Book List
***Starred Review***
"What readers will appreciate first in Enger's marvelous novel is the language. His limpid sentences are composed with the clarity and richness for which poets strive...readers will find themselves immersed in an exceptionally heartfelt and moving tale about the resilience of family relationships...Their journey comprises the action in the novel, but this is not really a book about adventure on the road. Rather, it is a story of relationships in which the exploration of character takes precedence over incident. Enger's profound understanding of human nature stands behind his compelling prose." (Brad Hooper)
From Publisher's Weekly-
"...Enger has created a world of signs, where dead crows fall in a snowstorm and vagrants lie curled up in fields, in which everything is significant, everything has weight and comprehension is always fleeting. This is a stunning debut novel, one that sneaks up on you like a whisper and warms you like a quilt in a North Dakota winter, a novel about a faith, miracles and family that is, ultimately, miraculous."
From Rick Bass-
"Not since Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain...have I been so engrossed in the reading of a book...and in a story told so beautifully...In the reading of it, we cross into amazing territory." (Rick Bass)
From Jim Harrison-
"Once you begin Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, you are carried away by the elemental surge of its story, the sheer eagerness to see what happens to the engrossing characters who exist far from the intrusions of the media in the timeless arena of family love and anguish over a lost member. It is Enger's gift that he has made their extraordinary world credible." (Jim Harrison)
From January Magazine-
"Leif Enger's remarkable novel Peace Like a River quietly slipped into bookstores in September. Like the smart kid who sits at the back of the class and seldom speaks, it was very nearly overlooked during the brawling Franzen-Oprah hoopla. However, Peace Like a River is a book worthy of the loudest trumpet fanfare and showers of confetti available. Put this one right to the head of the class...Enger takes the best writers, then stakes his own territory to create a story about family, faith and fugitives that's as rich in language as it is plot...It's hard not to be swept away by Enger's prose...The novel rises steadily to an unexpected and shattering climax which is sure to leave readers gasping for air in the last 15 pages. Unlike Reuben's condition, it does not wheeze. It sings. Oh my, how this book sings." (David Abrams)
