Brian Payton - The Wind is Not a River

While accompanying a crew on a bombing run, John's plane is shot down over the island of Attu. But surviving the crash is only the beginning of his ordeal in this harsh and unforgiving fury of a wilderness known as "the Birthplace of Winds." In the days ahead, John must battle the elements, starvation, and his own regrets while evading discovery by the Japanese. Alone in their home 3,000 miles to the south, Helen struggles with her husband's absence-a silence that exposes the truth of her sheltered, untested life. Caught in extraordinary circumstances, in this new world of the missing, she is forced to reimagine who she is-and what she is capable of doing. Somehow, she will find John and bring him home, a quest that takes her into the farthest reaches of the war, beyond the safety of everything she knows.

An evocative, richly atmospheric story of life and death, commitment and sacrifice, The Wind Is Not a River ($26.99) is a sweeping story of survival that illuminates the fragility of life and the fierce power of love.

Brian Payton has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe. He is the author of Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness, which was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, an NPR Pearl's Pick, and a 2006 U.S. National Outdoor Book Awards Book of the Year. Another work of nonfiction, The Ice Passage, and a novel, Hail Mary Corner, were published to acclaim in Canada. He lives with his family in Vancouver.