The Wind Is Not a River: A Novel

by Brian Payton

Overview

Brian Payton’s The Wind Is Not a River is a gripping tale of survival and an epic love story set during the only World War II battle on American soil.

Following the death of his younger brother in Europe, journalist John Easley is determined to find meaning in his loss. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Helen, he heads north to investigate the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, a story censored by the U.S. government.

While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is shot down over the island of Attu. He survives only to find himself exposed to a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, known as “the birthplace of winds.” There, John must battle the elements, starvation, and his own remorse while evading discovery by the Japanese.

Alone at home, Helen struggles with the burden of her husband’s disappearance. Caught in extraordinary circumstances, in this new world of the missing, she is forced to reimagine who she is—and what she is capable of doing. Somehow, she must find John and bring him home, a quest that takes her into the farthest reaches of the war, beyond the safety of everything she knows.

“A haunting love story wrapped in an engaging and unsettling history lesson . . . Along the way, readers will learn not just about a fascinating and largely forgotten slice of American history, but what it felt like to live through it.” —USA Today

“Payton crafts a beautiful, heart-inspiring and heart-wrenching tale of love, forgiveness, loneliness, the strength of the human spirit, and the power of faith in God and family.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062279996
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	325
Sales rank:	37,899
File size:	982 KB

About the Author

Brian Payton has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He is the author of two acclaimed works of narrative nonfiction and the novel, Hail Mary Corner. He lives in Vancouver.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/15/2013
Still grieving the loss of his brother who went down with his plane over the English Channel, journalist John Easley, determined to make sense of the war, dons his brother's uniform and heads to the territory of Alaska where he hopes to document the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is downed over the island of Attu. He and one other survivor of the crash endure a desperate struggle to survive the cold and hunger while evading patrolling Japanese soldiers. Meanwhile John's wife, Helen, leaves her ailing father in Seattle and joins a USO show, hoping to make her way to Alaska to search for her husband. This moving and powerfully written novel explores themes of war, life and death, morality, and love in a unique World War II battleground that very few people outside Alaska know about or remember. VERDICT Payton, known for his nonfiction works Shadow of the Bear and The Ice Passage, has written a suspenseful, beautifully researched title that readers will want to devour in one sitting. As a nearly lifelong inhabitant of Alaska and having spent three years on Adak in the Aleutians, this reviewer was particularly gratified by the accuracy of the author's portrayal of the land and people of the "birthplace of the winds." Bravo! [See Prepub Alert, 7/22/13.]—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage P.L., AK

Library Journal

In his gripping, meditative second novel, Brian Payton explores this nearly forgotten chapter of American history.

The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Ferguson

10/21/2013
This top-notch WWII historical novel from Vancouver-based writer Payton (Hail Mary Corner) involves the little-remembered Japanese invasion and partial occupation of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. War correspondent John Easley is shot down in a seaplane along with six crewmembers in April 1943, just off the barren island of Attu. He and the only other survivor, young Texan aviator Karl Bitburg, hunker down in a beachside cave while hiding from the Japanese. Meanwhile, John’s wife, Helen, is living in Seattle while helping her father, Joe, recuperate from a stroke. She resolves to search for her missing husband, from whom she’s been separated ever since she delivered an ultimatum to him to choose between her and his work. John had chosen to leave Helen and continue what he regarded as his patriotic duty as a war reporter, spurred on by the memory of his kid brother Warren’s fatal crash into the English Channel while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Helen joins a USO troupe assigned to Alaska but finds the strict censorship of military information a hindrance to her desperate quest. Payton has delivered a richly detailed, vividly resonant chronicle of war’s effect on ordinary people’s lives. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Associates. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

In this gripping, meditative second novel, Brian Payton explores this nearly forgotten chapter of American history.” — New York Times Book Review

“Exquisite….[Payton] gives us images that are bright and crisp… [and] can write the heck out of Alaska and war…” — Chicago Tribune

”A haunting love story wrapped in an engaging and unsettling history lesson…Along the way, readers will learn not just about a fascinating and largely forgotten slice of American history, but what it felt like to live through it.” — USA Today

“Powerful… thoughtfully conceived…The pages of this book practically turn themselves… By turns greathearted and grim, “The Wind Is Not a River” probes the reasons for, and the consequences of, the human practice of war...this story may haunt you long after you’ve put the book down.” — Seattle Times

“Payton crafts a beautiful, heart-inspiring and heart-wrenching tale of love, forgiveness, loneliness, the strength of the human spirit, and the power of faith in God and family. These are not the stories we heard from our parents, but they are believable nonetheless.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Set against a meticulously described Alaskan setting, each harrowing or quietly painful minute is portrayed in realistic detail…The book arcs poetically across the distance between Helen and John, drawing out the separation that they (and the reader) can hardly bear.” — BookPage

“Payton, in the loveliest of prose, illuminates a little-known aspect of WWII while portraying a devoted couple who bravely face down the isolation, pain, and sacrifice of wartime.” — Booklist

“This moving and powerfully written novel explores themes of war, life and death, morality, and love in a unique World War II battleground that very few people outside Alaska know about or remember…Payton…has written a suspenseful, beautifully researched title that readers will want to devour in one sitting.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“What a great-hearted, beautifully written, and utterly riveting novel. It has a power that brings to mind the old Greek stories of war, love, and journey.” — Ron Rash, bestselling author of Serena and Nothing Gold Can Stay

“Beautifully written, lyrical and elegiac, The Wind Is Not A River is a novel you must read…John Easley’s struggle to survive and his wife Helen’s struggle to find him form the most triumphant and heartbreaking love story I’ve read in years.” — David Vann, author of Legend of a Suicide and Caribou Island

“Not since Cold Mountain have I read such a brilliantly sustained metaphor for our collective guilt and grief, nor such a stirring testament to the redemptive power of love. We need this novel now.” — Wayne Grady, author of Emancipation Day

“...Payton seamlessly blends fact and fiction to tell the story of a lesser-known subject - the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands during World War - that’s equally as meditative and just as informed as his nonfiction…” — The Oregonian (Portland)

From the Publisher

What a great-hearted, beautifully written, and utterly riveting novel. It has a power that brings to mind the old Greek stories of war, love, and journey.

Ron Rash

In this gripping, meditative second novel, Brian Payton explores this nearly forgotten chapter of American history.

New York Times Book Review

Beautifully written, lyrical and elegiac, The Wind Is Not A River is a novel you must read…John Easley’s struggle to survive and his wife Helen’s struggle to find him form the most triumphant and heartbreaking love story I’ve read in years.

David Vann

Powerful… thoughtfully conceived…The pages of this book practically turn themselves… By turns greathearted and grim, “The Wind Is Not a River” probes the reasons for, and the consequences of, the human practice of war...this story may haunt you long after you’ve put the book down.

Seattle Times

Exquisite….[Payton] gives us images that are bright and crisp… [and] can write the heck out of Alaska and war…

Chicago Tribune

”A haunting love story wrapped in an engaging and unsettling history lesson…Along the way, readers will learn not just about a fascinating and largely forgotten slice of American history, but what it felt like to live through it.

USA Today

Payton crafts a beautiful, heart-inspiring and heart-wrenching tale of love, forgiveness, loneliness, the strength of the human spirit, and the power of faith in God and family. These are not the stories we heard from our parents, but they are believable nonetheless.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Set against a meticulously described Alaskan setting, each harrowing or quietly painful minute is portrayed in realistic detail…The book arcs poetically across the distance between Helen and John, drawing out the separation that they (and the reader) can hardly bear.

BookPage

Payton, in the loveliest of prose, illuminates a little-known aspect of WWII while portraying a devoted couple who bravely face down the isolation, pain, and sacrifice of wartime.

Booklist

...Payton seamlessly blends fact and fiction to tell the story of a lesser-known subject - the Japanese invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands during World War - that’s equally as meditative and just as informed as his nonfiction…

The Oregonian (Portland)

Not since Cold Mountain have I read such a brilliantly sustained metaphor for our collective guilt and grief, nor such a stirring testament to the redemptive power of love. We need this novel now.

Wayne Grady

”A haunting love story wrapped in an engaging and unsettling history lesson…Along the way, readers will learn not just about a fascinating and largely forgotten slice of American history, but what it felt like to live through it.

USA Today

Exquisite….[Payton] gives us images that are bright and crisp… [and] can write the heck out of Alaska and war…

Chicago Tribune

Payton, in the loveliest of prose, illuminates a little-known aspect of WWII while portraying a devoted couple who bravely face down the isolation, pain, and sacrifice of wartime.

Booklist

2013-10-05
An unusual novel in that Payton takes us to a theater of war not normally visited--the Japanese-occupied Aleutian Islands in 1943. John Easley is deeply involved in the war but ironically not as a soldier--he's a journalist. On a quest for the truth about what's going on in this remote Alaskan territory, he is shot down and forced into survival mode on the island of Attu. The only other survivor of the crash is Airman 1st Class Karl Bitburg, a Texan running away from an impossible home life. For a while, the two survive on mussels and live in a cave, hidden from the 2,000 Japanese in their immediate area. Meanwhile, John's wife, Helen, is consumed with worry about her missing husband and decides to take desperate measures to learn of his fate. An amateur dancer and performer, she gets a job with the United Services Organization (thanks in part to a sympathetic band leader) and wangles a trip to entertain the troops in Alaska. She's able to find out small bits of information--for example, that John passed himself off as a Canadian soldier using the uniform of his younger brother, Warren, recently deceased in action around the English Channel. Further complications on the homefront involve Helen's father, Joe Connelly, whose recent stroke has left him somewhat incapacitated. Torn between caring for her father and looking for her husband, Helen is eased somewhat by Joe's insistence that she follow her heart and seek out John. Eventually, husband and wife reunite, but Payton keeps this reunion poignantly brief. Through a narrative strategy that alternates chapters between John's plight and Helen's search, Payton effectively gives the reader two visions--and two versions--of a neglected aspect of World War II.

Kirkus Reviews