Title: The River We Remember
Author: William Kent Krueger
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: September 5, 2023
Length: 421 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
Rating:
On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past.
Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
The River We Remember was my book group’s pick for April, and we were fortunate enough to have a zoom chat with the author. I myself was late in finishing, so I attended the chat having only read half the book… but that’s okay. He was gracious and engaging, the group avoided giving spoilers on the central mystery, and all in all, it was a wonderful event. And then I finished the book the next day!
OUR LIVES AND the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about the past. In all of them there is truth, and in all of them a good deal of innocent misremembering.
In The River We Remember, a Minnesota community is rocked by the violent death of one of its leading residents. Jimmy Quinn was not loved — not by a long shot — but as the biggest landowner in the area, he was powerful, connected, and in many cases, someone to fear. Lots of people would have had grudges, resentment, even hostility, but was his death murder, suicide, or just a gruesome accident?
The story unfolds through the eyes of multiple characters living in the small town of Jewel. Chief among these is Sheriff Brody Dern, a veteran of WWII with visible and invisible scars and a complicated personal life. At various points, though, we see through the eyes of many different people — there’s a sense of the community being the true main character. All the people we meet — deputies, a diner owner, teen boys, local farmers, a lawyer, a reporter — are connected and have histories that weave together, with their actions affecting one another in an intricate chain of events.
The mystery of Jimmy Quinn’s death is the central plot thread of the novel, but as this unfolds, we encounter themes around war and survival, guilt, growing up with violence, generational trauma, and the ripple effects of hate, bigotry, and racism. There’s also the concept of home — what makes a community, a piece of land, or even a specific person feel like home? Where do people find belonging?
I won’t go further into plot details, but will sum up by saying that while the mystery has a satisfying resolution, the true beauty of this book is the outstanding character depictions. Each of the people we meet are distinct and have complex inner lives that come into play as they interact. The whole is emotional and evocative, allowing the reader to experience the time and place of the story in a way that feels authentic and powerful.
Simply put, The River We Remember is a beautiful novel. This is my third book by this author (I also loved his two other stand-alones, This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace), and I look forward to starting his long-running Cork O’Connor series.
Bookshelf Fantasies 