In the spring of 1971, Owen Brand and his family move to the riverside town of Middlecross, trying to escape poverty. For twelve-year-old Owen, it's the opportunity for a new life. He quickly falls in with three local boys and forms a strong bond with Jennifer, the rebellious daughter of a violent, alcoholic father. When summer brings release from school, two figures preside over the boys' activities: Walter Gribbs, the benign old watchman at the yacht club, and Hodgson Fisk, a vindictive farmer tormented by his past. Then the boys stumble on a body washed up on the riverbank?and the reverberations of this discover will result in a cataclysm that envelops them all….Published for the first time in the United States, from the acclaimed author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson's This River Awakens, is a lyrical, tender, and disturbing portrayal of a rite of passage that is both harsh and revelatory.