Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s tough, redemptive Once Upon a River stars Margo Crane, a nearly-feral teenage girl raised on the Stark River in rural southwest Michigan. Margo lives in a naturalistic idyll with her father and extended family outside of a dying factory town; she spends her days in silence as she hunts, fishes, and swims in her beloved river. When she is assaulted by a family member and her impulsive act of revenge takes a deadly turn, her foundations crumble and she escapes in a fishing boat with only a stolen rifle and a vague intent to find the mother who abandoned her years ago. But life on the river proves difficult, even for a girl as steadfast and resourceful as Margo.

Determined to create a life according to her own unconventional morality, Margo is a rare and welcome character in American fiction. While Campbell’s sense of place is uncanny, her real triumph here is in her creation of a stoic tomboy, a frankly sexual and breathtakingly innocent heroine whose adventurous spirit keeps the pages turning.

Readers looking for another story of innocence and experience in the natural world should also try My Abandonment by Peter Rock.

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Recommended by Sara D.