Lost River

Jason O’Donnell is a journeyman reporter whose big dreams of finding the elusive, career-altering Story have been blunted by the relentless demands of daily, big city journalism. Once transfixed by the sight of his articles rolling off the press, he has now lost hope after being relegated to his paper’s lifestyle pages where he coaxes awkward poetry out of stories about prize-winning pumpkins and the best way to floss one’s teeth. In the newspaper business, where the high node of success almost always portends the deep trough of failure, Jason has clearly hit bottom.
In a moment of rare impulsiveness, Jason decides to give his faltering journalistic career one last chance. In search of “the shock of new material,” he flees the suburban conformity of the south to work for the Lost River Journal, “the best daily north of 60" and the central nervous system of a small but byzantine town on the country’s northern flank.
Jason soon meets the enigmatic Roxanne, who has recently fled a secretive religious commune nestled in the mountains that encircle Lost River. He discovers that she is the Rosetta Stone to his biggest Story yet. Her renegade path has directly challenged the isolationist mission of a subterranean network of influential citizens who direct the affairs of Lost River, and her behaviour threatens to expose decades-old crimes and transform the political development of the territory.
Jason seeks a Story of transcendent importance, while Roxanne wants to find the God she thought she knew. Together, they must decide how far they will allow the corruption of small compromises to deter them from their quest in a tale that depicts the search for a higher calling with compassion, humour and a touch of mystery.