Above the Waterfall

Nothing else comes so I set the notebook beside me. What else is here? I ask myself and listen. This section of stream purls and riffles amid small stones. What word might be made for what I hear …Les Clary’s final case has broken the still surface of his backwater town. Becky, a park ranger with her own mysterious past, shares Les’s consolation in the natural world that lies just beyond their hopelessly broken town. As Les and Becky explore of the county’s lyrically beautiful landscape, they finds themselves led deeper into the heart of the town’s corruption, and into the darkness of their own ruptured histories. This haunting novel is a poetic journey into the wilderness of the heart.

Reviews of Above the Waterfall

A writer's writer who writes for others — Colum McCann A gorgeous, brutal writer — Richard Price One of the great American authors at work today — Janet Maslin * New York Times * Ron Rash is a writer of both the darkly beautiful and the sadly true … One of our very finest novelists — Richard Russo Magnificent is suddenly too small a word * Irish Times * Finds a narrow sweet spot between Raymond Carver and William Faulkner. * Washington Post * Rash's prose is elegant, suggestive, and Hardyesque. * Boston Globe * Combining suspense with acute observations and flashing insights, Rash tells a seductive and disquieting tale about our intrinsic attachment to and disastrous abuse of the land and our betrayal of our best selves * Starred Booklist * Alternates between traditional prose and a poetic voice * Wall Street Journal * The book begins as a lyrical, far-reaching reflection on nature and modern-day loneliness … Beneath the surface, the novel contemplates more timeless questions about human frailty, the divinity of nature and the legacies of our native landscapes … A hybrid of prose poetry, nature writing and literary mystery … Exhilarating and beguiling * Atlanta Journal *