Once Upon a River: A Novel

Bonnie Jo Campbell

Jul 2011 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

"A demonstration of outstanding skills on the river of American literature." —Entertainment Weekly

Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, Margo takes to the river in search of her mother with only a biography of Annie Oakley to her name. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to deciding what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

Ratings and reviews

The first time I read this there was something about the story that I didn't like but I often thought about the book. A few months later I read it again and everything sat better with me. Not sure why.

As a redneck girl myself who grew up hunting, fishing, swimming a river, and who also has a dark past, this book was like reading a biography. I absolutly loved this booked and was moved to tears several times as I empathized with Margo. You live a young girls journeys of individuality, sexuality, self reliance, and self discovery. This book is dark at times but overall has a more powerful message. Anyone can overcome trauma and tragedy and make room for happiness and peace if they are perceptive enough to learn from their pasts. Kudos!

saab x zanzgc,mmm If you admire x raixnbow after the rain, then why not love again after the pain?

About the author

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of six works of fiction, including American Salvage, finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Once Upon a River, a national bestseller. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, AWP’s Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize, she lives outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, with donkeys.