The Same River: A Novel

Jess Jensen, lead scientist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, carries the weight of the Nesika River with her every day. She fights for the ecosystem surrounding, to protect the fish within it, and to preserve it as a memorial to her sister, Monica, who drowned there when they were both children. Jess’s fight for the river is a fight for all of us in that she is a warrior attempting to honor all that came before for the sake of what comes next.

Lisa Reddick’s first novel, The Same River, draws on her background in ecopsychology as well as her time in the Pacific Northwest to paint a picture that is both alarming and celebratory. Corporate greed juxtaposed with righteous anger, and conservative and liberal positions on the environment are writ large in the relationship between Jess and the man she loves, Jeff, himself a scientist for PowerCorp, the energy company attempting to save their bottom line at the expense of the environment.

The brilliance of the book, though, is not in these complex structures, however compelling and well worth reading. It is the different points of view in the novel, specifically Jess’s in the modern era and that of Piah, a Native American woman of the Molalla tribe from centuries prior, that make the book unputdownable. The strength of these women in the face of danger is as compelling as anything else I’ve read, and their commitment to defending the fabric of life as shared by humanity and the natural world is astonishing.

The Same River should be mandatory reading for anyone and everyone, as it is the story of what we must be willing to sacrifice to save ourselves.

Read our interview with Lisa Reddick, author of The Same River.