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, he 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.
A blizzard leaves Ernest stranded in a depressed western Massachusetts mill town after he boards a bus to Manhattan to avoid being sent to a Jesuit boarding school. 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.
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"Provost's hero is a Franco-American Holden Caulfield. But Salinger's protagonist comes from rich Manhattanites, while Provost's character has his roots in the little-understood cultures of the Francophone Northeast of our continent. From her brisk, well-observed narrative emerges a touching and intimate evocation of these little-known communities." David Vermette, author of A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans
"As a fifth-generation Franco-American, I was heartened by this story set in an ethnic culture whose experiences are underrepresented in American literature. Ernest Benoit is a modern-day adventurer on a quest for meaning as he learns about love, loss, and his own soul. Provost's writing is vivid, and her pace is swift. Readers of all ages will be drawn to this moving coming-of-age tale." Paul Marion, author of Lockdown Letters & Other Poems and editor of Atop an Underwood, the early work of Jack Kerouac
"Ernest Benoit's odyssey begins as a search for some meaning that can help him better understand his best friend's tragic death. But his at times dangerous journey quickly becomes a search for his own roots and soul. Along the way, he negotiates narrow escapes, evades the police in two countries, and comes face-to-face with the true nature of love, loyalty, and forgiveness. Provost is a gifted storyteller. The River Is Everywhere is well worth your time." Stephen O'Connor, author of Smokestack Lightening
"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 and Darling Girl
