A River Without Banks

A River Without Banks chronicles one family's journey to Idaho, exploring their encounters with a place still partly wild, whose communities and landscapes teach them how to respect the earth and each other.

William Johnson's essays move from a family vacation spent observing moose, to a comparison of the creation myths from Genesis and the Nez Perce, to watching a raptor seeking prey. Johnson meditates on how places, animals, and people teach us "how to see, and how we do, and don't, belong."

In prose that reveals a poet's eye, Johnson explores how family relationships affect the way we see the natural world. He reminds us that words have the power to divide and to heal, and he illuminates the challenges of sustaining vital contact with a home place.