The River's Daughter
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors, by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.
After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion—until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life—the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself—was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling.
On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears—both on the water and off. The river taught her how to overcome years of betrayals and abuse, to trust herself, and, finally, how to help heal her family from generational cycles of trauma and poverty.
A beautifully rendered memoir of a woman coming into her own, The River’s Daughter opens us to the possibilities of transformation through nature.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Rivers have shaped not just my calloused hands but the course of my life," writes white water rafting guide Crocker in her inspiring debut. After surviving a fall into Wyoming's Snake River as a girl, Crocker felt protected and understood by the river's current in the midst of her turbulent childhood. (Following her parents' divorce, Crocker bounced between their homes in Wyoming and California, and endured physical abuse from her father.) Through adolescence and into adulthood, Crocker habitually sought solace in the water, including after she was sexually assaulted as a teenager by an older acquaintance. Eventually, she followed her boyfriend's lead and became a certified rafting instructor, making good on her dreams of visiting southern Africa's Zambezi River and leading excursions on the Kern and Snake Rivers. Throughout, Crocker makes a convincing case for outdoor adventuring as a tool for teaching people to trust their intuition: "Over the years, I had spent a lot of time ruminating about what my family had not given me, overlooking what I had inherited as my birthright: the ability to transform suffering, rise up, and survive." It's a triumphant road map for following one's passions.
