The damming of the Gunnison River in western Colorado created the Blue Mesa Reservoir in the 1960s, submerging the rural town of Iola, Colorado. Shelley Read’s novel “Go as a River” begins in 1948 before Iola’s residents are displaced.
Seventeen-year-old ‘Torie’ (Victoria) Nash runs the household on her family’s famous peach farm. Her family consists of her father, an ill-tempered brother, and her disabled uncle. The Nash family experienced tragedy when Torie was 12 with the loss of her mother, aunt, and cousin in a car accident. Torie is left with the burden of keeping the household running, managing chores, and doing everything she can to help with work on the farm.
Torie’s life is changed forever after a chance meeting in town with a young drifter named Wilson Moon. He is kind and mysterious, and he immediately captures Torie’s heart. Moon is Native American, and readers quickly become aware of the town’s bigotry toward outsiders and anyone racially different from the predominantly white community.
Throughout “Go as a River,” Torie endures repeated loss and hardship. She changes dramatically over the course of the story. Read’s descriptions of the Colorado landscape often mirror Torie’s emotional journey. The natural imagery also reinforces the novel’s themes of resilience and reinvention, with the Gunnison River serving as the story’s central symbol.
This story will appeal to fans of historical fiction, emotional journeys, and lush, atmospheric prose. It also examines what happens when development and modernization erase communities tied to the land. The novel further acknowledges that the residents of Iola were not the original stewards of the land, nor the first people displaced from the area.
This is a novel that should resonate with our own local history. About 70 years ago, the Summit County town of Rockport experienced a fate similar to Iola’s. The Wasatch County towns of Keetley and Hailstone were also submerged with the completion of the Jordanelle Reservoir in 1993.
The purpose of One Book One Community is to provide a shared experience of reading for the Summit County community. Look for upcoming events supporting One Book One Community during the months of June and July. Author Shelley Read will speak to the community on Thursday, July 30, at 7:00 p.m. in the Jim Santy Auditorium at the Park City Library. “Go as a River” can be found in our local libraries.
