What do you think?
Rate this book
Heron River
Heron River is a deeply moving exploration of human error and redemption, tragedy and triumph, set in the supposed safety of a small Ontario town. The novel poignantly confronts the necessary possibilities for human forgiveness and love amidst adversity.
The threads of the characters’ lives are intricately interwoven: a woman with a gradually debilitating illness seeks solace from the pain of the past and the challenges of the present; her adult son, damaged from a tragic childhood accident, finds security in his routine existence, until he falls prey to a cunning deception; a gifted teen-aged boy harbours a dark secret that he must confront in order to be whole; a young female police officer tries to solve a puzzling string of break-ins following the murder of an elderly woman, and the previously staid small town reacts anxiously to the fact of a killer in their midst.
Heron River probes the fierce bonds of family, the tragic consequences of human failure, and the persistent reverberations of history and memory.
The threads of the characters’ lives are intricately interwoven: a woman with a gradually debilitating illness seeks solace from the pain of the past and the challenges of the present; her adult son, damaged from a tragic childhood accident, finds security in his routine existence, until he falls prey to a cunning deception; a gifted teen-aged boy harbours a dark secret that he must confront in order to be whole; a young female police officer tries to solve a puzzling string of break-ins following the murder of an elderly woman, and the previously staid small town reacts anxiously to the fact of a killer in their midst.
Heron River probes the fierce bonds of family, the tragic consequences of human failure, and the persistent reverberations of history and memory.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
About the author
Hugh Cook
4 books4 followersHugh Cook was born in The Hague and immigrated to Canada with his family when he was seven. He holds an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa and has published stories in a number of Canada’s leading literary journals.
His novel Home in Alfalfa won the City of Hamilton Book Awards for fiction and has been adapted for the stage. In 1997 The Word Guild of Canada awarded Cook the Leslie K. Tarr Award.
Cook is emeritus professor of English at Redeemer University College. He and his wife reside in Hamilton, Ontario.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
His novel Home in Alfalfa won the City of Hamilton Book Awards for fiction and has been adapted for the stage. In 1997 The Word Guild of Canada awarded Cook the Leslie K. Tarr Award.
Cook is emeritus professor of English at Redeemer University College. He and his wife reside in Hamilton, Ontario.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Read
November 14, 2023What if something awful happened early on in your family that you couldn’t do anything about because you just didn’t know it was happening so you shouldn’t feel guilty about it the rest of your days although you could of [sic] done something about it if only you had known but you didn’t know and so somehow you have these guilt feelings anyway?
This is the red thread that runs underneath the tapestry that Hugh Cook weaves in his latest novel.
The story told here resembles nothing so much as a whodunnit, and yet there is more, much more. Shocking events have rocked Caithness, an otherwise quiet town nestled along the banks of the Heron River. Who killed the old woman dragged from the river, and why? Who assaulted the younger woman, and again, why? Never mind, it will be revealed at last, but first we get to enjoy reading the ups and downs of the everyday lives of a handful of ordinary yet interesting people whom we feel we know and for whom we feel affection after only a few pages.
The novel Heron River introduces us to a host of different scenes, settings, circumstances and events, all described in exquisite detail. They are believingly familiar, and yet they are somehow unsettling because of the dark underside you sense is there. Cook takes us in a police cruiser to a native reserve, to a group home for the mentally challenged, to a private hospital for a weekly visit to an aging parent suffering from dementia. Each time it is as if you are there. And each time you get to know more about these ordinary people doing their ordinary and not so ordinary thing, coping with their share of brokenness yet facing each day with new courage and hope. Like the old masters in oil, the author trains our eyes on the outward look and the inner worth of things. With superb skill and loving attention, mixed with deft touches of light and darkness, he treats us to minute descriptions of getting an MRI, descending on a rope into a deep and dark deserted well, hearing the Mohawk tale of the Three Sisters, overhearing an elder reading Scripture in the language of the old country.
The people in this southern Ontario community form a colourful mosaic: they are all very different, but they are all uncannily true to life. Five “voices” speak in turn, and like the opening sentence of this review they often speak in a “stream of consciousness, acquainting us with the inner thoughts of the “speaker.” Jacob’s fantasies about his birth mother draw us into a world one would never suspect; Adam’s innocent naivete tugs at our hearts; Constable Burnaby steels her nerves as she faces routine danger; Mother Madeline has to live with MS. And Orrin? His conduct is as inexcusable as his choices are understand¬able; yet for all the horror and contempt it evokes, can there be a little corner in our heart that feels pity for him?
At last the lines converge, to resolve in a surprising and very satisfying ending. For all the smallness of the town and the smallness of its people, always overarching is a dimension of transcendence. Broken¬ness does not have the last word in God’s world.
And what about those feelings of guilt we started out with? Well, if those guilt feelings point in any way to real guilt, then there is only one solution: to experience the love of God through forgiveness. That is one message I got from Heron River. Highly recommended!
−Harry Van Dyke, D.Litt.
This is the red thread that runs underneath the tapestry that Hugh Cook weaves in his latest novel.
The story told here resembles nothing so much as a whodunnit, and yet there is more, much more. Shocking events have rocked Caithness, an otherwise quiet town nestled along the banks of the Heron River. Who killed the old woman dragged from the river, and why? Who assaulted the younger woman, and again, why? Never mind, it will be revealed at last, but first we get to enjoy reading the ups and downs of the everyday lives of a handful of ordinary yet interesting people whom we feel we know and for whom we feel affection after only a few pages.
The novel Heron River introduces us to a host of different scenes, settings, circumstances and events, all described in exquisite detail. They are believingly familiar, and yet they are somehow unsettling because of the dark underside you sense is there. Cook takes us in a police cruiser to a native reserve, to a group home for the mentally challenged, to a private hospital for a weekly visit to an aging parent suffering from dementia. Each time it is as if you are there. And each time you get to know more about these ordinary people doing their ordinary and not so ordinary thing, coping with their share of brokenness yet facing each day with new courage and hope. Like the old masters in oil, the author trains our eyes on the outward look and the inner worth of things. With superb skill and loving attention, mixed with deft touches of light and darkness, he treats us to minute descriptions of getting an MRI, descending on a rope into a deep and dark deserted well, hearing the Mohawk tale of the Three Sisters, overhearing an elder reading Scripture in the language of the old country.
The people in this southern Ontario community form a colourful mosaic: they are all very different, but they are all uncannily true to life. Five “voices” speak in turn, and like the opening sentence of this review they often speak in a “stream of consciousness, acquainting us with the inner thoughts of the “speaker.” Jacob’s fantasies about his birth mother draw us into a world one would never suspect; Adam’s innocent naivete tugs at our hearts; Constable Burnaby steels her nerves as she faces routine danger; Mother Madeline has to live with MS. And Orrin? His conduct is as inexcusable as his choices are understand¬able; yet for all the horror and contempt it evokes, can there be a little corner in our heart that feels pity for him?
At last the lines converge, to resolve in a surprising and very satisfying ending. For all the smallness of the town and the smallness of its people, always overarching is a dimension of transcendence. Broken¬ness does not have the last word in God’s world.
And what about those feelings of guilt we started out with? Well, if those guilt feelings point in any way to real guilt, then there is only one solution: to experience the love of God through forgiveness. That is one message I got from Heron River. Highly recommended!
−Harry Van Dyke, D.Litt.
July 24, 2018
Heron River is a beautifully written book. I simply couldn't stop reading it; I read far too late in the night for the five evenings it took me to finish it. The very first sentence grabbed me: "This is how Madeline will remember it years later."
There is a lot of darkness in this novel. There are a lot of characters' voices too, and I loved that. Each character speaks in his or her own voice, and Hugh Cook does such a marvelous job of writing their voices and their thoughts, that most of the time he doesn't even have to tell us who is speaking, because the reader knows who it is. Each chapter is a different narrator, and not once did I regret that the next chapter was told by someone else because each voice carried the story forward in a new way.
Madeline is perhaps the main character, but really, there are two others who are just as important: her son, Adam, who is damaged in a childhood accident and now, as a young adult, lives in a group home; and Jacob, the thirteen-year-old paper boy. Their lives weave in and out of the lives and deaths of many others in the small river town of Caithness, where the darkness of one summer's events alters lives.
Yet despite the murders, the break-ins, the muggings, there is always a sense of hope and possible redemption. Many of the characters are not who you think they are, and many are better than you hope. There is evil, but it does not win. And that's not a spoiler.
There is a lot of darkness in this novel. There are a lot of characters' voices too, and I loved that. Each character speaks in his or her own voice, and Hugh Cook does such a marvelous job of writing their voices and their thoughts, that most of the time he doesn't even have to tell us who is speaking, because the reader knows who it is. Each chapter is a different narrator, and not once did I regret that the next chapter was told by someone else because each voice carried the story forward in a new way.
Madeline is perhaps the main character, but really, there are two others who are just as important: her son, Adam, who is damaged in a childhood accident and now, as a young adult, lives in a group home; and Jacob, the thirteen-year-old paper boy. Their lives weave in and out of the lives and deaths of many others in the small river town of Caithness, where the darkness of one summer's events alters lives.
Yet despite the murders, the break-ins, the muggings, there is always a sense of hope and possible redemption. Many of the characters are not who you think they are, and many are better than you hope. There is evil, but it does not win. And that's not a spoiler.
January 18, 2020
I loved the pacing of this novel. I felt I was learning how to write by reading this novel. The story was slow and constantly moving among the various characters ... though only a small handful receiving direct attention. Cook takes his time to tell you about every little movement and easily switches between the characters dialogue and thoughts. It left you with a lot of understanding and empathy for the lives you see slowly revealed. I would love to read more, especially about Tara and Keller (Tara got direct focus from time to time, Keller only came into view when Adam was spending time with him).
I really loved this novel.
I really loved this novel.
February 7, 2025
The strength of this book is the descriptive detail of what is happening. The weakness of the book is that the characters and narrative action don't really support or justify the degree of detail presented. In sum, it's a book I'd recommend to someone looking for examples of how to write detailed accounts of events, but not one I'd recommend because of the characters or plot, though the opening tale of how Adam comes to be how he is is exceptional in its dramatic impact.
May 30, 2012
hugh is a very meticulous and careful writer. the story is good, but people may have trouble sticking with the book because of his careful description.
was also reading and thought wow, this is just like what happened to glenda and rob and then at the end i read the thanks and hugh thanked glenda bouwers for sharing her story with him.
was also reading and thought wow, this is just like what happened to glenda and rob and then at the end i read the thanks and hugh thanked glenda bouwers for sharing her story with him.
April 27, 2016
Delicately crafted, smooth prose, clear and affecting language. A very nice read.
March 7, 2013
A very moving novel in so many ways.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews