Last Year's River

"It's not an easy thing to tell a true story." Thus begins the gripping debut novel of noted author and editor Allen Morris Jones. Hailed by Thomas McGuane ("Deserves a wide and admiring readership") and Rick Bass ("As clean as wind and water and stone.") LAST YEAR'S RIVER tells the compelling, unfolding story of a romance between Virginia Price, a young New York debutante sent off to Cody, Wyoming to bear a child, and Henry Mohr, a cowhand recently returned to the family ranch from the trenches of World War I. In graceful, spare prose, Allen Morris Jones reveals the thoughts of these two damaged and sympathetic characters, drawing them toward each other against all odds, ultimately unfolding a love story as grand as the American West. With an unusual eye for detail and an exceptional ear for the tight-lipped, terse mumblings of western dialogue, Jones delivers a love story infused with an extraordinary sense of history, drama, and the West.

"Allen Jones knows the West by heart." --William Kittredge

"A beautifully written, heart-tugging novel," --Newsday

"The unconventional love story at the heart of this first novel is touching and unpredictable, the wild landscapes are indelibly described, and the characters are vividly drawn. Highly recommended." --Library Journal