The River of Kings
A Novel
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4.4 • 7 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A literary adventure down the Altamaha River, where history, myth, and family secrets collide.
In The River of Kings, bestselling author of Fallen Land Taylor Brown artfully weaves three narrative strands—two brothers' journey down an ancient river, their father's tangled past, and the buried history of the river's earliest people—to evoke a legendary place and its powerful hold on the human imagination.
The Altamaha River, Georgia's "Little Amazon," is one of the last truly wild places in America. Crossed by roads only five times in its 137 miles, the black-water river is home to thousand-year-old virgin cypress, direct descendants of eighteenth-century Highland warriors, and a staggering array of rare and endangered species. The Altamaha is even rumored to harbor its own river monster, as well as traces of the oldest European fort in North America.
Brothers Hunter and Lawton Loggins set off to kayak the river, bearing their father's ashes toward the sea. Hunter is a college student, Lawton a Navy SEAL on leave; they were raised by an angry, enigmatic shrimper who loved the river, and whose death remains a mystery that his sons are determined to solve. As the brothers proceed downriver, their story alternates with that of Jacques le Moyne, the first European artist in North America, who accompanied a 1564 French expedition that began as a search for riches and ended in a bloody confrontation with Spanish conquistadors and native tribes.
Twining past and present in one compelling narrative, and illustrated with drawings that survived the 1564 expedition, The River of Kings is a dramatic and rewarding adventure through history, myth, and the shadows of family secrets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brown's (Fallen Land) second novel captures the essence of an enchanting place with a story combining adventure, family drama, and local history over the span of centuries. The book begins with brothers Hunter, a college student, and Lawton, a Navy SEAL, kayaking down the Altamaha River in Georgia to scatter their father's ashes, as well as to answer some questions about his death. Chapters describing their modern-day outdoor adventure down the river alternate with scenes from their father's life on the river and historical chapters set in the 1560s in the same area. At that time, French settlers claimed the land at the river's mouth and established the first European fort in America, Fort Caroline, where they clashed with Native American tribes. The historical chapters focus on Jacques Le Moyne, a real-life artist who recorded the expedition, and include his actual drawings of the Native Americans they encountered and the settlers' harrowing experiences. These captivating, detailed drawings enhance the historical account. Brown ties the three stories together with tales and sightings of an ancient river monster. Brown makes this nostalgic trip down the river a gorgeous ode to the Georgia coast.
