Leif Enger's rhapsodic novel about a father raising his three children in 1960s Minnesota is a breathtaking celebration of family, faith, and America's pioneering spirit. Through the voice of eleven-year-old Reuben, an asthmatic boy, Peace Like a River tells of the Land family's cross-country... read more
“"So you can win the battle, Reuben"--Waltzer shrugged--"but the war is lost long ago."”Jape Waltzer, the villain.
“Once touched by truth, a little thing like faith is easy.”
“The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly. Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”
People fear miracles because they fear being changed—though ignoring them will change you also.Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
When did it come to Davy Land that exile is a country of shifting borders, hard to quit yet hard to endure, no matter your wide shoulders, no matter your toughened heart?Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
It is one thing to be sick of your own infirmities and another to understand that the people you love most are sick of them also. You are very near then to being friendless in this world.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here’s what I saw. Here’s how it went. Make of it what you will.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it’s been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week—a miracle, people say, as if they’ve been educated from greeting cards. I’m sorry, but nope. Such things are worth our notice every day of the week, but to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the word.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
History was built into Davy so thoroughly he could never see how it owned him.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
I like to believe we have all said things that approach this in stupidity.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
I can feel it still, that sizzling jump inside my organs. It didn’t feel good, not as I would’ve suspected the touch of the Lord might feel, but I wouldn’t say it felt bad either. It only felt powerful, like truth unhusked. Once torched by truth, Swede wrote years later, a little thing like faith is easy.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Once traveling, it’s remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else—ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it’s weak, but sometimes you’d rather just have a map.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Clay
His Separate Shadow
Beauteous Are My Cakes Indeed
Your Toughened Heart
Peeking At Eternity
When Sorrows Like Sea Billows Roll
Late in the Night When the Fires Are Out
A Boy on a Horse
By the Grace of Lurvy
The Substance of Things Hoped For
The Last Thing He Would Do
At War with This Whole World
Something Warm
The Skin Bag
Under the Gibbon Moon
The Throbbing Heart of News
The Little Man’s Country
Winning Her Hand
Boy Ready
The Ledger of Our Decisions
The Red Farm
Be Jubilant, My Feet
The Curious Music That I Hear
Acknowledgments
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