CATEGORY

A first novel reminiscent of Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose about love, adventure, and one couple's reckless daring. In November 1928, one year after Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic, a pair of young newlyweds set out to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon in a homemade boat. Swept up by America's obsession with feats of daring, Glen and Bessie Hyde hoped to set a record—she would be the first woman to run that treacherous stretch of the Colorado River. A month later they vanished without a trace. Based on the few known facts of Bessie and Glen Hyde's story and deftly braiding the account of the young lovers' journey with Glen's father's desperate efforts to find them, Lisa Michaels creates a tale of inexorable suspense. Readers of her critically acclaimed memoir, Split: A Counterculture Childhood (called "beautifully written, highly evocative" by Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times), will find Grand Ambition a gripping and poignant adventure.