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Minnesota Jen Hatmaker Book Club

We are the Minnesota chapter of the national Jen Hatmaker Book Club. Meetings are held in the Twin Cities metro area once a month.

Go as a River: A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER and BOOK CLUB FAVORITE * Over 1 million copies sold worldwide!

* 2024 High Plains Book Award Winner * 2023 Reading the West Book Award Winner * Finalist for Goodreads Choice Award * Colorado Public Radio 2023 Books We Love * 2025 Prix de l'Union Interalliée *

Set amid Colorado's wild beauty, the heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter. A tragic and uplifting novel of love and loss, family and survival--and hope--for readers of Great Circle, The Four Winds, and Where the Crawdads Sing.

"Beautiful . . . A striking first novel of love and strength and growth, set against the forests and rivers of Colorado's high country. Read is a gifted writer, and the book is a literary triumph."--Denver Post

"With gorgeous descriptions of the great outdoors, an illicit love story, and an unforgettable protagonist, Go as a River offers something for everyone."--Real Simple

"I couldn't stop thinking about it . . . it's stunning."--Jen Hatmaker

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family's peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado--the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the surrounding mountains, where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland--its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home--where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river--gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.


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Published Jun 3, 2025

320 pages

Average rating: 7.78

1,049 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

WineforReading
Apr 04, 2023
9/10 stars
Sweet and touching story delicately woven through history.
Shelly Read
Aug 31, 2024
6/10 stars
I’ve come to realize I really don’t enjoy reading slow paced, melancholy stories. And boy, this one was melancholy. Almost every part of it was just plain sad. Hard life, hardened people and just plain depressing. Reminded me a little bit of Where the Crawdads Sing. I was an outlier on that book as well.
jhclcsw
Aug 30, 2023
9/10 stars
A beautiful historical fiction novel with protagonists living in the rural Southwestern Colorado of Iola, which is now a ghost town under water.
Mwashic
Jun 20, 2023
10/10 stars
It's 1948 & the protagonist, Torrie Nash, finds her 1st love. This slow burn story takes place over 40 years. Heartwrenching about love, sacrifice & what a mother will do for her child. The ending is satisfying but not neatly tied up, just to keep it real. And those peaches, mouth watering & delicious ❗I know the 2 orchards the author referred to in her research. "...To go as a river...had taken me a long while to understand...meant... flowing forward against obstacle...like the river."
SharlC
Jun 17, 2023
9/10 stars
If you like Kristen Hannah, this is a winner. The life of a young woman who falls in love, makes tough choices and lives with the consequences while becoming stronger. I enjoyed the unlikely friendship and the chance of a new beginning.

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