"Ben Nickol's SUN RIVER is an exquisitely crafted and thoroughly engaging book of short stories set in North Idaho and Western Montana. Struggling with decisions made by and for them, Nickol's men and women bicker and yearn in off-putting witticisms and common sense wisdom. His study here is nothing less than an American vernacular, the language of a people worn and scarred by time and place and decisions big and small. However flawed and desperate, they try, they endure, hopeful and defiant. Illuminated by hard-won insights, Nickol's SUN RIVER is a meditative, rewarding read."--Marc Bojanowski