Greg Schwipps
Author, Teacher and Catfisherman
Copyright 2009 Greg Schwipps
Published by Indiana University Press, Break Away Books
What This River Keeps
In the rolling hills of southern Indiana, an elderly couple copes with the fear that their riverbottom farm - the only home they've every known - will be taken from them through an act of eminent domain. The river flowing through their land, the current the old man has fished nearly every day of his life, may be dammed to form a reservoir. Their son, slipping deeper into troubles of his own, struggles to define his place both in a new romantic relationship and in the family heritage. This beautiful and heartfelt debut novel examines what it means to love a place and a family, and the sometimes-staggering cost of that affection.
"What This River Keeps bears comparison to the best work of Steinbeck - in this case we're given the vivid portrayal of the common working men and women of rural Indiana juxtaposed against great forces, without pity or hope, but without true defeat, though they may well lose all in the end. Schwipps also gives us, in full measure, the ancient father and son story, reinvented and made new; the complications of family; the friendship between men; the long tested love between married people; the discovery of the responsibilities of love; the love and care of the land; the love of a river; the keen life of the outdoors; the close attention to the earth in its seasons and myriad variousness. This is a very fine first novel. I read it compelled and fascinated to the last word." - Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong
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Greg Schwipps Introduces His First Novel