
ABOUT THIS BOOK
PUBLISHER: Into Books
ISBN: 9781738514939
RRP: £11.99
PAGES: 288
PUBLICATION DATE:
March 20, 2025
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The River
By Craig Smith
The River is a life-spanning epic novel about death and new beginnings. There’s a saying, beloved of Scottish grannies: “Whit’s fur ye will no’ go by ye”. Seemingly embracing this maxim, Lachlan McCormack lives his life as aimless as a piece of driftwood, but somehow gets to where he always wanted to be – where the river meets the sea.
The novel is a love story, both to his childhood sweetheart, and to Scotland, and follows Lachlan’s journey through seven decades of the nation’s political, sporting and cultural history (and disappointments). Along the way, it appears that only death has the power to propel him onward, and the novel revisits the seven significant deaths that have shaped him and mapped his journey. It explores the cyclical nature of life, love, happiness, and Scotland’s ongoing struggle with its place in the world.
Craig Smith
Craig Smith lives in Musselburgh. He’s been many things in his time, but by far the most challenging was washing dishes in a Mexican restaurant (all that baked-on cheese is a nightmare to clean). Nowadays, when not making a living designing websites, he occasionally dusts off his bass guitar and joins one of his old bands on the nostalgia circuit. This led to him waking up hungover and naked with his bandmates in a Tokyo bathhouse at 7am, so it’s not all pipes and slippers (although it was very hard getting out of that bath). He is the proud recipient of two NME singles of the week and four Ks in Kerrang, which he is tempted to get tattooed on his arm but is scared he’d chicken out after three. Craig’s debut novel, The Mile, was written feverishly, fuelled by the pressing nature of the independence debate. Despite this, it was critically acclaimed. His new book, The River, is longer.