When two hardscrabble young boys think they’ve committed a crime, they flee into the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Will the adults trying to find and protect them reach them before it’s too late?
It’s the summer of 1994 in Claypot, Wisconsin, and the lives of ten-year-old Fischer “Fish” Branson and Dale “Bread” Breadwin are shaped by the two fathers they don’t talk about.
One night, tired of seeing his best friend bruised and terrorized by his no-good dad, Fish takes action. A gunshot rings out and the two boys flee the scene, believing themselves murderers. They head for the woods, where they find their way onto a raft, but the natural terrors of Ironsforge gorge threaten to overwhelm them.
Four adults track them into the forest, each one on a journey of his or her own. Fish’s mother Miranda, a wise woman full of fierce faith; his grandad, Teddy, who knows the woods like the back of his hand; Tiffany, a purple-haired gas station attendant and poet looking for connection; and Sheriff Cal, who’s having doubts about a life in law enforcement.
The adults track the boys toward the novel’s heart-pounding climax on the edge of the gorge and a conclusion that beautifully makes manifest the grace these characters find in the wilderness and one another. This timeless story of loss, hope, and adventure runs like the river itself amid the vividly rendered landscape of the Upper Midwest.
As a kid, I always loved books like Hatchet and Lord of the Flies. Stories that explored how to survive, and to what ends people would go to do so. Andrew J. Graff’s Raft of Stars is everything I want in a survival novel: suspense, tough moral decisions, and a dangerous setting to accentuate the fear of the characters.
I find that with survival novels, setting is the most important thing. Graff nails the hauntingly beautiful woods of Wisconsin with vivid scenery and a tense atmosphere that kept my eyes glued to the page. I’ve personally never been to Wisconsin, but after reading Raft of Stars I found myself googling the region, and it’s exactly as Graff described. Thanks to Raft of Stars, this is a place that now feels strangely familiar.
A coming-of-age and survival adventure story all packed into one – this book has it all. Bursting with complex characters, a heartbreaking story, and a looming setting to tie it all together, Raft of Stars is one of my favourite novels of 2021.
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