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 blackwater river is home to thousand-year-old virgin cypresses, 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, The River of Kings is Taylor Brown's second novel, a dramatic and rewarding adventure through history, myth, and the shadows of family.
About the Author :
Taylor Brown is the author of six books of historical fiction. His books have won the Southern Book Prize and the Montana Prize in Fiction, been finalists for several other awards, and have been named among the Best Books of the Year by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and NPR. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the North Carolina Literary Review, the Southwest Review, Baltimore Review, Chautauqua, Garden & Gun, The Rumpus, CutBank, storySouth, and many others. He grew up on the Georgia coast and has lived in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and the mountains of western North Carolina.
Mark Bramhall has won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, more than thirty AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has repeatedly been named by AudioFile magazine and Publishers Weekly among their "Best Voices of the Year." He is also an award-winning actor whose acting credits include off-Broadway, regional, and many Los Angeles venues as well as television, animation, and feature films. He has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art.
Review :
"The River of Kings is almost impossibly visual―cinematic in the best sense."
-- "Paste magazine"
"A brilliant braided history, water-tight and blood-bound. Each strand of time is laid atop the one before it to make an intricate fable."
-- "Ashley Warlick, author of The Arrangement"
"A literary achievement: a complex, character-driven story that's powerful in concept and execution."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
"Brown's southern gothic novel jumps right off the page...It truly captures the moody atmosphere of Georgia's broken downtowns in the 1970s and the Appalachian foothill regions of the 1560s. The complex protagonists and stringent social order found in both eras helps to make the Peach State's backwoods and the mysterious murky waters characters too."
-- "RT Book Reviews"
"Captures the essence of an enchanting place with a story combining adventure, family drama, and local history over the span of centuries...A gorgeous ode to the Georgia coast."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"For all its twists, this is a novel worth every turn of the page."
-- " Providence Journal"
"Impressive...an intense, solidly written story of family loyalty, Southern traditions, and haunting historic landscapes."
-- "Library Journal (starred review)"
"With language as rich as floodplain soil, The River of Kings is a stunning Southern epic of tremendous heart and scope."
-- "David Joy, author of The Weight of This World"
"With Taylor Brown's lyrical prose and narrator Mark Bramhall's omniscient voice, it's as if the mighty Altamaha itself is the storyteller...Bramhall's resonant Southern drawl will have listeners practically floating alongside the brothers, whose dialogue is especially vivid."
-- "AudioFile"
