Ruthless River

April 15, 2017

This debut is a travelog of two thrill seekers, the author and her husband, "Fitz," whose dream was to travel the world on a shoestring budget. After a surviving a plane crash and being stranded in a penal colony in Peru for several days without a ferry to take them out, the couple decide to build their own log raft, the Pink Palace, and tackle the Madre de Dios river themselves. They learn the river current will carry them and that they'll arrive in ten days, but it all goes horribly wrong. There's a storm, a tree falls on the raft, FitzGerald ends up covered in fire ants, and Fitz almost falls off the raft. The next morning, they find themselves in stagnant water with no current, no clue where they are, and almost no food. FitzGerald weaves a dramatic tale from there full of misfortune and trials yet also hope. This is both travel memoir and shocking adventure story, like a real-life Survivor or Naked and Afraid. Occasional flashbacks to life prior to the couple's trip are the only drawback; some add to the narrative while others seem to have no connection at all. VERDICT A powerful story about survival, love, and faith in the face of impossible odds, this unputdownable story of travel horrors is absolutely fascinating.--Katie Lawrence, Grand Rapids, MI

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017
The account of a transformational South American odyssey that tested the author and her husband to the limit.In March 1973, having missed their boat after surviving a plane crash at a remote outpost in Peru, FitzGerald and her husband were forced to take a makeshift raft down Rio Madre de Dios to Riberalta, Bolivia, en route to Brazil. What was supposed to be a journey of a few days became a harrowing ordeal. The author's story of the inexperienced rafters being swept by a storm into a tributary they could barely escape, their extreme privation and miseries--weeks trapped in a jungle swamp without shelter, food, or fresh water--is vivid and consistently compelling. FitzGerald often writes fine, lyrical descriptions, especially of nature, though when mooning over her husband, the prose turns purple and overwrought, better suited to a romance novel than a gritty survival adventure. However, considering what the couple endured, the periodic spasms of over-the-top romanticism and superstition can be forgiven, and readers will admire their remarkable fortitude. FitzGerald is at her best when detailing their many challenges or suggesting states of mind. "Despite my physical debilitation," she writes, "my mind had achieved a heightened clarity. My vision of life was now stripped to the bone. As starvation consumed my body, its effects also trimmed the fat and gristle from my thoughts." Since her journal was lost early in the trip and FitzGerald had to record their trial by other means, some readers may question the accuracy of her moment-by-moment recollections, and occasionally, credulity is strained. We also learn little of the young couple's remarkable globe-hopping before and after the disaster, apart from listings of places visited. FitzGerald overcomes her book's few flaws to produce an absorbing tale of survival, love, and the generosity of people who helped save their lives.

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April 1, 2017
A plane crash into a South American penal colony, a missed boat, and some well-intentioned locals lead a young honeymooning couple well out of their depth in FitzGerald's detailed, high-stakes debut memoir of her true-life tale of survival in the Amazon, against desperate odds. In 1973, social-worker FitzGerald and her reporter husband had been married less than two years when a storm stranded their homemade raft in a dead-end channel off the Madre de Dios River in Bolivia. FitzGerald weaves in the stories from their past with palpable, evocative details of their daily struggles with starvation, strong currents, and despair, all while the couple's love, self-knowledge, and faith deepen. Personal photos taken by FitzGerald mix with rich detail about the towns, birds, bugs, and people along the couple's journey, immersing the reader in the wild jungle-river environment. Recommended for fans of survival narratives, coming-of-maturity stories, and travelogues from off the beaten path.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)