Peace Like a River
Leif Enger's debut novel, Peace Like A River, was launched to critical acclaim in 2001 and went on to sell over one million copies. Now a perennial, best-selling American classic, it is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, and a love story, in which "there is magic... none more potent that Leif Enger's prose" (Newsday). Enger brings us eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in the Midwest who has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been charged with murder. Their journey unfolds like a revelation, and its conclusion shows how family, love, and faith can stand up to the most terrifying of enemies, and the most tragic of fates.
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Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
311 pages
What’s it about?
Reuben Land is an asthmatic 11 year-old boy living in the Midwest. When Reuben's older brother Davy kills two intruders the whole family must come to terms with it.
What did it make me think about?
Faith, family, miracles, and who we choose to rely on.
Should I read it?
I revisited this book after 10 years and enjoyed it again a second time.
Quote-
"Fair is whatever God wants to do."
If you liked this try-
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
311 pages
What’s it about?
Reuben Land is an asthmatic 11 year-old boy living in the Midwest. When Reuben's older brother Davy kills two intruders the whole family must come to terms with it.
What did it make me think about?
Faith, family, miracles, and who we choose to rely on.
Should I read it?
I revisited this book after 10 years and enjoyed it again a second time.
Quote-
"Fair is whatever God wants to do."
If you liked this try-
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
https://cerebralspice.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/book-list-peace-like-a-river-by-leif-enger
Lovely writing, Minnesota and North Dakota based, intriguing story.
This book is beautifully written. The author has a brilliant way of describing people, events and emotions. However, it gets off to a good start and then slows down to a crawl in the middle. At about the 60% point, it picks up again and then it’s great. I love a book that ends in an unexpected way and this provided that.
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