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    In the Heart of the Canyon: A Novel
    Unavailable
    In the Heart of the Canyon: A Novel
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    In the Heart of the Canyon: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    In the Heart of the Canyon: A Novel

    Written by Elisabeth Hyde

    Narrated by Mark Deakins and Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the author of The Abortionist's Daughter, a gripping new novel about a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon that changes the lives of everyone on board.

    Meet Peter, twenty-seven, single, and looking for a quick hookup; Evelyn, a fifty-year-old Harvard professor; and Ruth and Lloyd, river veterans in their seventies. There's Mitchell, an overeager history buff with no qualms about upstaging the guides with his knowledge. There's Jill from Salt Lake City, wanting desperately to spark some sense of adventure in her staid Mormon family; and seventeen-year-old Amy, so woefully overweight that she can barely fit into a pup tent, let alone into a life jacket.

    Guiding them all is JT Maroney, who loves the river with all his heart and who, having made 124 previous trips down the Colorado, thinks he has seen everything. But on their first night, a stray dog wanders into their campsite, upsetting the tentative equilibrium of this makeshift family. Over the next thirteen days, as various decisions are second-guessed and sometimes regretted, both passengers and guides find that sometimes the most daunting adventures on a Colorado River trip have nothing to do with white-water rapids, and everything to do with reconfiguring the rocky canyons of the heart.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 14, 2009
    ISBN9780739383674
    Unavailable
    In the Heart of the Canyon: A Novel
    Author

    Elisabeth Hyde

    Born and raised in New Hampshire, Elisabeth Hyde briefly practiced law for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. In 1982 she took time off to write her first novel, Her Native Colors, and never looked back. She has been awarded working scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and teaches creative writing through artist-in-residence programs. Her fourth novel, The Abortionist's Daughter, was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Read and became a UK bestseller. Pan are publishing Crazy as Chocolate in Spring 2007. Elisabeth lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and three children.

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    Reviews for In the Heart of the Canyon

    4/5

    90 ratings17 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Nothing too extreme in this book: a group of people doing an adventure white water raft through the Grand Canyon with guides. The reader gets to know all the characters through a shifting omniscient POV. Of course they've all got their baggage and issues and through the ride things "work out" so to speak and they "find themselves". I kept expecting huge disaster of the bare bones, survival sort, but instead got lots of little adventures. Nothing too profound, nothing too great, but a reasonable story and writing; very middle of the road.
      It does pique my interest in going on such a trip myself (if it didn't cost $3000).

    • 4/5
      Intriguing page turner.
    • 5/5
      What fun! Elizabeth Hyde has an ear for dialogue and kept the story moving along at a nice pace. (On loan from Cindy.)
    • 5/5
      In the Heart of the Canyon is an accurate portrayal of a thirteen day river trip down the Grand Canyon; so much so that I felt I could have been there. Hyde effectively describes the guides, the tourists, the scenery, and of course, the Colorado River picture perfect. The character development of everyone involved in the trip builds just as if you were in the boats with them, getting to know them as the days and miles pass by. The weather (and how to deal with the heat) and surrounding nature comes alive with Hyde's words. And when it comes to rafting down the river you can tell Hyde has seen rapids and even had a "maytag" experience or two. She puts you right in the action. A story about a rafting trip down the Colorado would be enough material for a book but Hyde takes it a step further by introducing a stray dog early in the story and creating characters that are not only interesting but complex. One character in particular, seventeen year old Amy keeps a journal. Her journal gives the events described by Hyde a new perspective. She introduces a different point of view and her comments serve as a reminder that everyone has an alternate truth based on their own unique personality. It's what happens when you put twelve strangers and three guides together.
    • 3/5
      This was a very well-crafted story with interesting characters. It seemed to be a fairly realistic portrayal of what a raft trip must be like (barring the fictional license taken for narrative purposes, of course). A quick read.
    • 5/5
      The following statements from the book emphasize what the story meant to me:"The fact that there was no turning back, that they could not go forward--that they were committed to the [river] run, like it or not--suddenly seemed profound....""'You can do it', said Don, 'because you have to do it.'"A very powerful story, with adult themes, that I highly recommend especially if you enjoy stories set in the Grand Canyon, the American West, river runs, or outdoor adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed the story whose themes and ideas are very much present in my life.
    • 4/5
      Perfect vacation reading for me. I've read a few books, both fiction and non-fiction, about rafting the Grand Canyon and I enjoyed spending a couple of days doing so from the comfort of a big easy chair. As usual, there were likable characters and a couple of jerks, and everyone experienced psychological growth on the trip. The descriptions of the experience and the canyon are based on real life experience and beautifully written. Yes the story is a little trite - just what I needed for relaxing. If you're more interested in non-fiction I recommend Canyon Solitude by McCairen.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. It brought back so many memories of our trip down the Grand Canyon--it was so spot on in places that I kept checking the author's background, the guide company she used, etc. to see if perhaps she had been on the same trip. So much is there--the heat, the groover and the incredible beauty of the canyon. Floating in PDF-diapers down the Little Colorado, the hikes, the teasing of the guides--or their reading from books. She wove a credible story populated with real people--not as easy a feat as it seems--and brought it all to a plausible conclusion.
    • 5/5
      Heads Up! Stay Alert! Paddle strongly!I read this book early in the Summer of 2010. However, it is a book for anytime of the year, packed with adventure, interesting characters, scenic surroundings and unforeseeable challenges for the guides and the participants of a rafting trip down the miles of the Colorado River that run through the Grand Canyon National Park, in the USA.The guides know the river, it changes and is never the same, but the larger challenges seem to come from the various members of the adventure party themselves. Tension arises for everyone participating. The relationships between the personalities of the "guests," unexpected added responsibilities for the guides, a lost dog who is rescued and joins the group in order to be safely taken out of the canyon, health issues that present themselves for an elderly couple who are returning to run the river again, for perhaps their last trip ever ... all make their contribution to the fast paced tale.The skilled author, [[Elizabeth Hyde,]] takes the reader on quite a ride, along with the rafting group. At the satisfying conclusion I found myself to be relieved and happy to have taken the trip with them.Recommended for readers who like reading books with substance and authenticity in both the sense of place and the interplay of the character's ways of being in the world of "vacation land", American style.
    • 5/5
      This was quite a book, the story of a group of people rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, a journey of twelve days that, for some, would change the course of their lives. From the very first pages this book reached out and grabbed me and I found myself unable to put it down. When I did manage to break away, I found myself thinking about the book and wondering what was going to happen next.From savouring the beautiful descriptions of river and canyon, to the gripping drama of shooting incredible rapids, the author knows what she is writing about and really gives you a sense of being there. Along with being given such a scenic ride, the character driven story has a lot to offer, these twelve tourists with three river guides are experiencing life changing twists as they embark on the ride of their livesI enjoyed In The Heart of The Canyon and found it to be a smart and engrossing story.
    • 3/5
      This book was interesting enough. It details a rafting/camping/survival type trip among city slickers. It shows the best and worst of people; how they grow and change. This is a book about relationships.
    • 5/5
      After finishing this book, I could almost feel the river running under the raft and shock of cold water rushing over me. Can't wait to read the rest of her books.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful read - part adventure story and part human dynamics, Hyde blends the two beautifully. I felt like I was on the river with the whole crew and I loved the how Hyde used the dog to interject the first of many unexpected developments. I've always wanted to take such a trip and this novel brought it to life.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book and could barely put it down. I took that raft trip, so the setting was familiar. The characters were totally believable (we had a "Mitchell" on our trip) and the dialogue and their various points of view were perfectly rendered. And, of course, there are all the crazy things that happened along the way...All in all, riveting.
    • 4/5
      This book tells the story of a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. We get to know the three guides and the vacationers, a cross section of typical tourists. The author has compiled just about every mishap that could happen into one trip, with the addition of a stray dog. To say more would be to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say that I thought it would be a more catastrophic trip than it turned out to be, but considering the river traffic that exists now going down the river, plus satellite phones, helicopters, etc., noone can get in very big trouble down there, I guess, unless you drown on the spot. I enjoyed reading the book, though, and it made me want to do the trip, and I hate camping. And you will definitely want to look up lots of pictures on the internet when you're done.
    • 3/5
      Twelve rafters and three tour guides make up the characters in this novel. I bit to many for my liking, it was difficult to remember who was who, their relationships and their back story. But the main character in this novel is of course the Canyon itself. It changes people as much and as often as the white water changes its depth and appearance. It is a fairly quick read as I chose to forego most of the personal information and chose to concentrate on the rafting action on the river.
    • 5/5
      It's nearly impossible for me to summarize this book. For a few days, this was my own personal Colorado River adventure. The characters felt like my friends, and as each day passed in the book and the strangers felt closer to eachother, I felt closer to them. These people from all different walks of life - a Harvard professor, a mother and her overweight daughter, a family from Salt Lake City, an elderly couple - may have signed up for this two-week ride, but the relationships that develop and fall apart on the journey are what make this book so authentic. Elisabeth Hyde's writing is smooth and compelling - she changes voices from one character to the next seemlessly and artfully. This is the sort of book whose multiple angles will find it a wide audience - adventure and wilderness fans, older teens venturing into adult literature, family drama readers. Everyone will be ensconsed, everyone will be thankful for the ride.