Spotlight on: The River is Everywhere

Sixteen-year-old honors student Ernest Benoit has always followed the rules. But when his best friend drowns on Cape Cod, Ernest begins to question his family’s devout Catholicism, and he disrupts an Advent prayer service at his Catholic high school. Now his life will never be the same.

To avoid being sent to a Jesuit boarding school, Ernest boards a bus to Manhattan but ends up stranded in a blizzard in a depressed western Massachusetts mill town. It’s the beginning of a months-long journey that leads him to rescue a young girl from an icy river, into the bed of a lonely middle-aged widow, and to the woodland cabin of Roland Laliberté, a recluse who can shoot with the accuracy of a sniper.

When the widow falsely accuses Ernest of rape, Roland smuggles him over the Canadian border where they settle into life on the New Brunswick farm where Roland grew up. Ernest takes a job in the Lalibertés’ sawmill and falls in love with the girl next door. But it’s not long before the local police start asking questions and his return home seems impossible.
 
Praise for The River is Everywhere
“From brisk, well-observed narrative emerges a touching and intimate evocation of these little-known communities.” ~David Vermette, author of A Distinct Alien Race

“Ernest Benoit’s at times dangerous journey quickly becomes a search for his own roots and soul. Provost is a gifted storyteller. The River Is Everywhere is well worth your time.” ~Stephen O’Connor, author of Smokestack Lightening

“A modern-day adventurer on a quest for meaning as he learns about love, loss, and his own soul.” ~Paul Marion, editor of Atop an Underwood, the early work of Jack Kerouac

“A rich and haunting coming-of-age story with a hero reminiscent of a less cynical Holden Caulfield, The River is Everywhere explores the best—and worst—of human nature, with charming, complex, and fully rendered characters that are hard to forget.” ~Liz Michalski, author of Evenfall