Highland River (Canongate) [Paperback]

Neil Gunn (Author)

Book Description

Series: Canongate | Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Ken is a scientist, with a scientist's dispassionate eye for the material world, as he reviews his life from the difficult 1930s, through the slaughter of World War I, back to an idyllic boyhood in the Highlands. When the mature man finally reaches the source of the river that has haunted his imagination for so many years, he finds that the wellsprings of magic and delight were always there, in the world all around him at the time, inexhaustible and irreverent. Awarded the James Tait Memorial Prize 1937, Highland River is written in prose as cool and clear as the water it describes, and is the simplest, most poetic, and perhaps the greatest of Neil Gunn's novels.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Neil Gunn (1891–1973) was recognized as one of the leaders of the Scottish Renaissance. His books with their timeless themes of alienation and conformity, of loss and acceptance, have found a new audience in the present generation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Canongate UK (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862413583
• ISBN-13: 978-0862413583
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Scotland's Finest.., September 14, 2001

By 

julie osborne-moss (hayden lake, id United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Highland River (Canongate) (Paperback)

As an analogy for life, you can't get any more meaningful than Highland River. A story of a young boy's maturation, told in the brutally honest and realistic context of life in the Highlands of Scotland, before the First World War. His life is intertwined with that of the battle of the salmon, both for survival and to achieve it's mysterious returning to its birthplace. Both are searching for the river's source.

Gunn's writing is breathtaking in its ability to articulate the most intangible of emotions, and there are passages in the book which will stay with me for the rest of my life. Gunn's understanding of the Highland psyche, and his ability to translate it into the most moving prose, is never better exemplified than in this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE, August 22, 2001

By 

M. Hartman (East Coast, Etats-Unis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Highland River (Canongate) (Paperback)

Neil Gunn's prose in this work is pure perfection. His description of life in the Northern Highlands is passionate, beautiful and refreshingly honest. A complex coming-of-age story that becomes a study of the connections between the working class and the land they live and die on. Gunn is one of Scotland's greatest writers. Contains some absolutely brilliant descriptions of Scotland's natural beauty. If you are interested in great fiction look no further, especially if you have an interest in Scotland. Highly recommended.