Wind River

Tom Morrisey
Bethany House (2008)
ISBN 9780764203473
Reviewed by Nikki Pringle for Reader Views (8/08)

Tyler Perkins grew up among the vast mountains, valleys, and lakes of Wyoming. He used to go fly fishing with a man named Soren Andeman who had become like a father to him after his own was gone. On one trip, Ty made a promise to come back one day when Soren was older to take him on one last fishing trip. Years later, Ty joins the Marines and serves in both Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars. He comes back to his new home in Virginia a different man than the one he was before he left. He is uncommunicative and inattentive to his wife and is having a hard time letting go of the past and looking towards the future. When he receives an unexpected postcard from Soren, now eighty-six-years old and still living in the Wyoming backcountry, Ty decides to take a trip out West to take his old fishing buddy on one last adventure, as he had promised all those years before.

What was supposed to be a relaxing escape from everyday life turns into more than Ty bargained for when old lies, betrayals, and long-buried secrets come rushing to the surface like a brown trout rising in a cold mountain stream. When the men’s stories are shared, Ty must contemplate what justice and forgiveness really means, not just for himself, but for those around him here in Wyoming and back in Virginia. The trip home turns in to a desperate life or death struggle. Perhaps nature is trying to take matters in to its own hands with an act of God that will ensure justice at last.

“Wind River” is as breathtaking as the vistas Tom Morrisey so eloquently describes. He does more than ample justice to his novel’s location and to the characters that he had developed so richly. “Wind River” is a tale of returning to ones roots, both spiritual and real, and having the ability to look deep inside to find the answers to making things right that no one else can give. I found myself lost in this tale of nature and nurture and was enthralled by the beauty that Morrisey led me to imagine as clearly as if I was actually there through his wonderful storytelling. I recommend “Wind River” to any reader who is looking for something captivating and beautiful to add to their reading list.

 

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