Lost Canyon

by Nina Revoyr

Overview

One of the San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Recommended Books of 2015

"Los Angeles is home to many great storytellers, but Nina Revoyr is one of its finest scribes....[Lost Canyon] pulses with both beauty and terror, and the struggles of these characters, their physical and mental reckonings, are enough to make readers sweat without getting off the couch."
--Los Angeles Times

"Revoyr [is] an edgy and spellbinding writer with an uncanny gift for aligning human struggles with nature's glory and perils....With ravishing descriptions of the magnificent landscape, unrelenting suspense, incisive psychology, and shrewd perspectives on matters of race and gender, Revoyr has created a gripping tale of unintended adventure and profound transformation."
--Booklist, Starred review

"A suspenseful adventure story that explores how people react to danger, uncertainty, fear, and life-or-death choices....This is an exciting, page-turning adventure story that reveals how good people can do things totally contrary to their own moral code, and the conclusion will both surprise and satisfy."
--Publishers Weekly

"Revoyr travels LA's patchwork neighborhoods--delineating gangs and money, color and prejudice--and nicely sketches 'the grand, untamed Sierra.' Like Deliverance, a tense...morality tale formed in the crucible of physical duress."
--Kirkus Reviews

"With a nod to James Dickey's Deliverance...A direct, bangin' read for those interested in how people deal with physical and moral challenges."
--Library Journal

"An exciting blend of literary fiction and thrilling suspense--a harrowing trip into physical danger and a clever meditation on race relations and bravery."
--Shelf Awareness

A Book Riot Quick Pick/Book of the Week for the week of August 28, 2015

"What a pleasure it is seeing characters that live and breathe in the same textured universe that we do....Linked to complicated national issues, imbued with layered representations of Angelenos, [Revoyr] has brought us an intellectually adroit, emotionally nerve-wracking, page-turning thriller."
--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Even at its deadliest, Revoyr makes the high altitude seem mesmerizing....Revoyr has created characters we care for, issues we need to think about, and vistas that linger, making reading her book almost as much of a rush as scaling the sheer, icy rock of the Sierra Nevada."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Four people on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada find more adventure than they ever imagined. Each of them is drawn to the mountains for reasons as diverse as their own lives. Gwen Foster, a counselor for at-risk youth, is struggling with burnout from the demands of her job and with the loss of one of her teens. Real estate agent Oscar Barajas is adjusting to the fall of the housing market and being a single parent. Todd Harris, an attorney, is stuck in a lucrative but unfulfilling career--and in a failing marriage. They are all brought together by their trainer, Tracy Cole, a former athlete with a taste for risky pursuits.

When the hikers start up a pristine mountain trail that hasn't been traveled in years, all they have to guide them is a hand-drawn map of a remote, mysterious place called Lost Canyon. At first, the route past high alpine lakes and under towering, snowcapped peaks offers all the freedom and exhilaration they'd hoped for. But when they stumble onto someone who doesn't want to be found, the group finds itself faced with a series of dangerous conflicts, moral dilemmas, confrontations with nature, and an all-out struggle for survival.

Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception. It examines the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Set in the grand, wild landscape of the California mountains, Lost Canyon is a story of brewing social tensions and breathtaking adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617753626
Publisher:	Akashic Books, Ltd.
Publication date:	08/03/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nina Revoyr is the author of four previous novels, including The Age of Dreaming, which was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize; Southland, a Los Angeles Times best seller and "Best Book" of 2003; and Wingshooters, which won an Indie Booksellers' Choice Award and was selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now." Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles. Lost Canyon is her latest novel.

Read an Excerpt

Lost Canyon

A Novel

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By Nina Revoyr

Akashic Books

Copyright © 2015 Nina Revoyr
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61775-354-1

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CHAPTER 1

The picture opened on Gwen's computer, revealing a lake framed by pine trees, a backdrop of snow-covered peaks. A small stream flowed from the lake and when she looked very close, Gwen could almost see the water moving, the clouds drifting over the mountains. She imagined herself in the scene — the warm sun on her skin, the smell of pine — and felt her breathing slow, her shoulders ease. Just for a moment she forgot where she was — in a dingy building on 103rd Street in Watts.

Tracy's e-mail had come with the subject line, Cloud Lakes Trip: Last-Minute Details! Although Gwen was about to step out of the office, she couldn't resist checking the message. Besides the photo, there was a bullet-point list of food and supplies, plus directions to Tracy's house. Gwen glanced at the list and looked back at the picture; then she picked up the phone.

"Tracy Cole," came the voice on the other end. As always, she sounded focused and busy. Gwen could imagine her in her workout gear, standing arrow-straight behind the counter at the gym.

"Hey, Tracy, it's Gwen."

"Hey!" Tracy's voice was friendlier now, although she still sounded poised for action — ready to run a marathon, or break up a mugging, or hang glide off a cliff near the coast. "You got my e-mail?"

"I did, thanks," said Gwen. "It looks like I still need a few things. A sleeping pad, extra batteries. An extra fuel canister. How much is all of this going to weigh?"

"Maybe thirty-five pounds. A piece of cake. You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"No," Gwen assured her, although she was. What had she gotten herself into? Gwen was a city girl, born and bred — she knew chain-link fences and concrete better than rivers and trees. And she spent most of her time in South LA, where she worked for an organization that provided counseling and after-school programs for low-income kids. Although Gwen had started hiking a year and a half ago, it had all been short and local — she'd never hiked a trail more than five or six miles long, and she'd never spent the night in a tent. This trip would be unlike anything she'd ever done before — a four-day, three-night trip into the Sierra backcountry, a real wilderness experience. She imagined how the pack was going to feel on her shoulders — like carrying a child piggyback, and never putting him down. But she needed this; she needed to do something different, to see a world that was not shaped by people. "I'm just not sure about carrying all that weight," she said.

"You'll be all right. Just load your pack up the next few nights and walk around the block."

"Okay," Gwen said doubtfully. She imagined the stares she'd get from neighbors. Backpacking had never been a part of her world. Most people she knew would think of it — if they thought of it at all — as an activity for tree-hugging granola types with excess time and money. It definitely wasn't anything that black people did — especially not women.

Besides, all of this was easy for Tracy to say. Tracy was strong and fit — a combination of the Japanese sleek of her mother and the Idaho mountain man stock of her father.

She'd been a star soccer player, an alternate for the US national team, and had followed that up with a slew of outdoor pursuits — rock climbing, mountain biking, snowboarding — that, in Gwen's opinion, bordered on extreme. Now she was a trainer at SportZone, a physical therapy center and gym run out of a converted warehouse downtown, and she also had private clients on the side. Gwen had met her while doing physical therapy for a hyperextended knee, which she'd hurt during a volleyball game at the company picnic. Once she graduated from PT, she'd joined the fitness classes on the other side of the gym, and Tracy was the teacher.

"You know, I have an extra sleeping pad," Tracy said now. This trip to Cloud Lakes had, of course, been her idea. "Don't buy one. And I've got fuel and most of the group gear too. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, I think I'm okay." Gwen appreciated the offer, though. She'd borrowed the backpack and a sleeping bag from someone at work — but she'd still had to buy a headlamp, a rain jacket, and some lightweight pants, not to mention a sturdy pair of hiking shoes. She wouldn't be able to pay off her credit card bill that month, but one month of overage wouldn't kill her. Much worse, she knew, would be to stay in the office all summer.

"Well, all right then!" Tracy said cheerfully. "I'll see you at nine on Thursday at my place. It's going to be beautiful, Gwen. Classic Sierra backcountry. Trust me. You're not going to believe it."

"I'm excited," Gwen said. But she was nervous too. "Hey, who are the others again?"

"They're all clients. A couple of married stock-fund managers, the Pattersons. Todd Harris, the lawyer. And Oscar Barajas, the real estate guy."

"Don't I know Oscar?"

"Yeah, he comes to my Tuesday morning class."

Gwen was quiet for a minute and Tracy broke in again.

"Don't worry! They're nice people. I wouldn't subject you, or me for that matter, to spending four days with a bunch of assholes."

"Okay, okay," Gwen said, laughing. "I'll see you on Thursday."

After she hung up, she sat thinking for a moment. What would she have to talk about with a lawyer and two finance people? But she shook these doubts off. She needed a change of scene, a mind-frame adjustment. There'd been a lot weighing on her this last year, ever since the loss of Robert, a kid from one of her groups. Thank God for this trip. Thank God for Tracy, who made Gwen get out and do things that she would never have done on her own.

Gwen had never really been into exercise. But as she'd lifted barbells and hoisted medicine balls and trudged up the stair machine in Tracy's class, she was amazed at how much stronger she felt. Muscles she didn't even know she had grew sore, and then firm. Her excess pounds fell away. For the first time in her life, her body didn't feel like an encumbrance, or an enemy. And when Tracy invited her to join her twice-monthly hikes in the local mountains, Gwen had jumped at the chance. She'd been on a few hikes with the kids from work, but this was different. There was something about Tracy's energy, her lust for adventure and her solid belief that any new skill or pursuit could be mastered, that appealed to Gwen. She had needed that kind of optimism, especially this last year. She hoped that some of it might rub off on her.

Gwen grabbed her purse, stepped out of her office, and headed toward the entrance. The building had originally been a hospital for the mentally ill, and that's what it still felt like. The offices, converted from bedrooms, were windowless and claustrophobic. Half the overhead lights were burned out and the rest flickered unreliably. As Gwen passed through the front lobby, she saw the crack in the ceiling that was the shape of a lightning bolt; one good shaking from an earthquake might bring the whole place down.

She walked out to her car, a ten-year-old Honda. The weather was cool and overcast even though it was summer; she thought, not for the first time, that June Gloom was especially gloomy in South LA. She drove east on 103rd Street past the old train station, past the apartments for low-income seniors, barely glancing at the Watts Towers to the right, whose curling, colorful spires usually cheered her. Beyond Wilmington the broad street narrowed as it entered an area of small, rundown bungalows and apartment buildings, which faced the public housing projects across the street.

At Lincoln High School, she showed her ID to the security guard, who waved her into the lot. Then she walked across the concrete playground and into the ancient high school, which looked like a 1920s Department of Water and Power building that hadn't been painted since it was built. She made her way down a long hallway, past a custodial crew scrubbing curse words off the walls and graffiti from the lockers, and into the administrative office. There, she was pulled into an inner office while the secretary dug up the papers she needed to sign — the new memorandum of understanding between her agency and the school, program completion forms for some of her kids.

As she went back out to the waiting room, a group of students arrived to sign up for summer school. Two of them were black, the rest Latino, reflecting the change in the neighborhood. Just a few years ago, Watts had still been mostly African American. But last semester, in Gwen's youth leadership group at this school, she'd been the only black person in the room.

"Hey, Ms. Foster!" one of the kids called out. It was a student from the job readiness program that was run by her colleague Devon. "It's Sylvia," the girl said. "Sylvia Morales."

"Oh, hi!" Gwen answered, summoning the upbeat, caring energy she always tried to have with the kids. "I didn't realize you went here. You're a junior now, right?"

"Gonna be a senior next year," said Sylvia. She was a stocky girl, 5'8" or so, and she carried herself with a confidence that belied her surroundings. "I can't wait to get out of this mess."

"Are you coming to Devon's group at the office this summer?"

"No ..." Sylvia said, and now she glanced back at two other kids, another Latina and a black girl, both standing with their arms crossed and looking away like there was something else they'd rather be doing. "Actually, Lupita and Dawn and I were hoping to be in one of your groups. Sandra was in your leadership group this year — Sandra Gutierrez — and she told us we should join it for sure."

"That would be great!" Gwen said, pleased in spite of herself. "Hi, Lupita. Hi, Dawn. I'm Gwen. It's wonderful to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you next fall."

And just like that, facades began to crumble. Lupita blushed and mumbled hello, and Dawn met Gwen's eyes and smiled big.

"Just talk to your resource coordinator," Gwen continued. "Or better yet, stop by our office and sign up with the receptionist."

"Will you be around on Thursday?" Sylvia asked. "We could come by after school."

"Actually, no. I'm taking a little vacation."

"Really? Devon said you're always at work."

"Only most of the time," Gwen said, smiling. "But yeah, I'll be gone for a couple of days. I wanted to get away."

"Get away from all this?" Sylvia asked, striking a pose like a game show assistant. With the sweep of her arms she took in the office, the school, the neighborhood.

Gwen laughed and promised to see the girls the following week, and to save them spots in one of her groups. Now she remembered hearing about Sylvia from both Devon and Sandra, who'd been one of her hardest cases this year. These teens seemed so tough on the surface, but softened when you took the time to see them. Bright kids, all of them, full of potential, and as she walked back to her car, she felt cheered.

But as Gwen drove back toward the office by a different route, she remembered what those kids walked back into. This neighborhood felt like a bombed-out city, deserted after a war. Trash was piled everywhere. There were broken TVs and discarded tires, old mattresses, dirty clothes. Greasy food wrappers balled in gutters or fluttered away down the street. Doors and windows were covered with iron bars and particle board. The threat of crime hung in the air like a layer of smog; just last week there'd been a lockdown at the office because of a nearby shooting, and the week before, a man on a bicycle had held up two of her colleagues as they left a client's apartment. Inglewood, where Gwen lived, had its own share of troubles. But here, it felt like there were no rules at all. You always had to be on guard working in this neighborhood. You had to be prepared for the worst.

And yet, that was exactly why Gwen liked working in Watts — because the kids here had so much stacked against them. When she kept a young boy from joining a gang; when a girl she worked with made it to college, Gwen felt a huge sense of triumph and vindication. She'd had a rocky road herself when it came to school and family. No one had really expected anything from her, and no one expected anything good from the kids she helped. They were kids that other people thought expendable.

She turned onto a street that led into the housing project where Robert and his family had lived. It was a labyrinth of two-story bungalows that might have once been green. As always, she was struck by the desolation. On the dead grass between the units were old sinks and barbecue grills, piles of rusted bike and auto parts. Laundry waved from clothes lines, colorful items that stood out against the gray sky, like flags hung in surrender. A few proud residents struggled mightily against their surroundings — their entryways were swept clean, with maybe a potted plant or two — but this couldn't make up for the heavy gates over the doors, the paint flaking off the walls, the chunks of roof that collapsed with each rain. Once she had to stop for a legless woman in a wheelchair. Twice she slammed her brakes to avoid a loose dog. There were kids everywhere — youths circling on bikes, toddlers sitting on stoops with their mothers or grandmothers, a group of middle school kids throwing around a football. A dozen little ones waited in line for the single swing on an otherwise broken play set.

Gwen wove her way through the development, looking but not stopping when she passed the row where Robert had lived. Once he had been one of those kids, sitting on his stoop. Now he was gone, and she couldn't bear to look for very long at the place where he should have been, but wasn't.

Gwen loved her job, but lately she'd been feeling overwhelmed. It seemed like no matter what they did, no matter how many kids they helped, there were always others, so many others, who couldn't be reached. It was like trying to rescue people from a flood or tsunami — you might be able to pluck one or two out of the swirling waters, but hundreds more got swept away right in front of you.

And the neighborhood itself didn't help. In this community, it was hard for Gwen and her colleagues to preach about the promised land of college and a well-paying career, to instill that kind of faith, when no one in most of these kids' everyday experience had ever laid eyes on it or breathed its different air. There was no way a kid could walk into that school, or through Gwen's office building, or down these streets, and feel anything but second-rate. Now Gwen was starting to feel that way too.

Just as she turned into her parking lot, her cell phone rang. She picked it up and saw the caller ID — Alene Richardson — and let it ring one more time before she answered.

"Hi, Mom."

"Oh, hello, Gwen," her mother said, sounding distracted, as if Gwen had been the one to call her. "Are you at work?"

"Yes." Where else would she be?

"Good, good. I was just calling to remind you that Dana's birthday is on Friday."

"Yes, Mom, I know. I sent her a card today."

"Oh, wonderful! Thank you. You know how lonely your sister gets up there at school. It's good for her to hear from her family."

Gwen tried to quell her irritation. Her sister, she knew, was just fine. Twelve years younger than Gwen, she was now a first-year student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dana had been raised in a totally different era of their mother's life. She'd grown up in the house in Ladera Heights that had just been a stopping point for Gwen; had been lavished with clothes and trips and extracurricular activities; had been part of Jack & Jill, a young women's leadership group at church, the AKAs at Berkeley. Now, at twenty-four, Dana's birthday was still celebrated with as much fanfare as if she were a child. Yet there had been years in Gwen's own childhood, when she lived with her great-aunt, that Alene had forgotten Gwen's birthday altogether.

"I'm not going to be able to call her on Friday, though, Mom," Gwen said. "But I mentioned that in the card."

"Why not?"

"I'm going on my backpacking trip this weekend. Remember?"

A tense silence. Then a sigh. "Yes, now I recall. You're really going to do that, Gwendolyn?"

"Yes, Mother, I'm really going to do that."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Lost Canyon by Nina Revoyr. Copyright © 2015 Nina Revoyr. Excerpted by permission of Akashic Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

06/29/2015
When four city-bred Los Angeles yuppies go backpacking in the rugged wilderness of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, their trip turns out to be a nightmare of bad decisions and even worse luck. Revoyr’s (Wingshooters) novel is a suspenseful adventure story that explores how people react to danger, uncertainty, fear, and life-or-death choices. Tracy, an aggressive fitness trainer and risk-taking hiking guide, organizes the easy 30-mile hike with three of her clients (who don’t know one another). There is Gwen, a counselor of at-risk kids in South L.A.; Oscar, a disgruntled real estate salesman with judgment issues; and Todd, a burned-out lawyer in an unhappy marriage. Tracy is the expert—the others are novices, and their naïve bravado and macho bluster has grave consequences. A forestry glitch changes their hiking route, forcing them to a remote, little-used trail to Lost Canyon. The trek is more arduous than expected and becomes more and more dangerous, culminating in a fateful decision and desperate measures. This is an exciting, page-turning adventure story that reveals how good people can do things totally contrary to their own moral code, and the conclusion will both surprise and satisfy. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Even at its deadliest, Revoyr makes the high altitude seem mesmerizing. . . . Revoyr has created characters we care for, issues we need to think about, and vistas that linger, making reading her book almost as much of a rush as scaling the sheer, icy rock of the Sierra Nevada.

"

San Francisco Chronicle

"

Revoyr [is] an edgy and spellbinding writer with an uncanny gift for aligning human struggles with nature’s glory and perils . . . . With ravishing descriptions of the magnificent landscape, unrelenting suspense, incisive psychology, and shrewd perspectives on matters of race and gender, Revoyr has created a gripping tale of unintended adventure and profound transformation.

"

Starred Review Booklist

"What a pleasure it is seeing characters that live and breathe in the same textured universe that we do. . . . Linked to complicated national issues, imbued with layered representations of Angelenos, [Revoyr] has brought us an intellectually adroit, emotionally nerve-wracking, page-turning thriller."

Los Angeles Review of Books

"In this heart-hammering literary thriller, four very different and dissatisfied Los Angeles denizens set out on a four-day backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada, only to be confronted by a dangerous stranger."
—San Francisco Chronicle, Best of 2015: 100 Recommended Books

"Revoyr expertly captures the calming effects of forest, creeks, looming canyon walls on city dwellers...Imagine Deliverance set on the contemporary West Coast."
—BBC, 2015's Best Beach Reads

"[Revoyr's] novels defy easy classification: they are page-turners that plumb history, character studies fraught with suspense, hard-boiled visions rendered in warm tones. Fundamentally, they are generous ruminations on what it means to belong. And it's precisely this—the ability to write with lyricism and compassion about complex, often painful truths—that has made Revoyr one of the city's great storytellers."
—Los Angeles Review of Books, Interview with Nina Revoyr

"What makes this latest from Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming) more than a suspenseful tale of survival and personal growth is the slowly worked out differences of race and class, well articulated throughout....An absorbing read with good social context."
—Library Journal

"If you need an intense read to cap off your August, this is it....I can't say anymore without spoiling it, so I'll just say struggle, struggle, survival, more struggle, intense, intense, intense!"
—Book Riot

"Revoyr [is] one of LA's greatest contemporary novelists."
—KCET, LA Letters column

"Four people from Los Angeles...embark on a backpacking excursion through the Sierra Nevada and encounter more than they had bargained for."
—Outlook Magazine

"From the very first chapter, Revoyr delicately balances both character and plot, providing an in-depth look at each character's internal struggles and the external elements from which those conflicts arise."
—Hypertext Magazine

"Gripping....Expect to grip the pages, hold your breath, and lose sleep as you move through to find out what their fate will be....[Revoyr] is a writer worth reading."
—WNC Woman Magazine

"The picturesque forests of inland California are revealed to be harboring all kinds of dangerous secrets."
—MPR News

"She writes about the city with compassion and a sharp eye for detail, paying attention to people and neighborhoods often left out of mainstream stories about L.A."
—The Rafu Shimpo

"[Revoyr’s] love for and detailed knowledge of the natural beauty of the canyons and mountains shines through Lost Canyon: the flowers, scents and vistas that Gwen, Oscar and Todd encounter bring moments of healing each had hoped to experience on this trip. In depicting the backpackers working together for survival, Revoyr may also be dramatizing the idea that focusing together on shared dangers is one way to break out of straitjackets of racial and ethnic assumptions."
—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"In a former Wisconsinite's novel, three Angelenos on a backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains find both natural beauty and human evil."
—Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, A Recap of the 101 Books I Read in 2015

"The book’s biggest strength is the way in which Revoyr is able to portray the wilderness as both idyllic and dangerous. The characters struggle even before things take a frightening turn, but they also take great comfort in the natural world. And as their situation begins to look truly grim, the beauty of nature still offers a balm."
—The Gazette

"Three Angelenos join their mutual physical trainer for a backpacking trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains, expecting (and privately fearing) to be pushed past their self-perceived limits. With hiking poles and bear spray, they’ve prepared for uncertain slopes and wildlife, but not for the least predictable of dangerous animals—man."
—The Pueblo Chieftain

"Lost Canyon exquisitely describes the California mountain wilderness, shows the reader the world through the eyes of people very different from one’s self and wraps it up in a tidy thriller bow. Highly recommended!"
—Sonoma Valley Sun

"What starts out as a physical challenge quickly takes a turn for the worse when the group runs into a man who doesn't want to be discovered. Things rapidly go south, shots are fired, lives are threatened, and the struggle for survival becomes a very real thing that has more to do with courage than with endurance or physical fitness."
—Boswell Book Company, Staff pick

"Revoyr does an excellent job of drawing the characters for the reader so that by the time the plot takes over the reader's attention, the reader feels as though s/he knows the characters, and perhaps more importantly, care about them."
—Beagle and Wolf Bookstore, Staff pick

"Fans of Revoyr will appreciate her keen and meticulous eye toward the depiction of the mountainous landscapes and topographical features; this skill has been especially evident throughout her oeuvre, especially in her ability to render space in its myriad forms and scales (the city, farmland, etc) with such wonderful and rich detail. Perhaps, the greatest achievement in this novel is the realistic transformations that each character undergoes due to the traumatic and pivotal events that occur."
—Asian American Literature Fans

"An exciting page-turner....Revoyr's beautiful descriptions of the Sierras almost makes me want to go there. She also captures the essence of Los Angeles and its diversity. I finished the book in a day and loved it."
—The Cat Overlord Book Club (UCLA)

"Four backpackers of racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds set off into the Sierras in this unusual adventure thriller, only to find that the dangers of American society have followed them there."
—World Wide Work Newsletter

"In this gripping odyssey a breathtaking adventure goes terribly wrong....Expertly written. Revoyr is a classicist and she offers a trove of pointers for the wannabe writer."
—Kaieteur News (Guyana)

"With ripped-from-the-headlines action and character backstories that relate to real-life issues like the foreclosure crisis and the plight of students at inner-city schools, Revoyr has crafted an absorbing, thought-proving read."
—Books & Whatnot

"Four unlikely Angelenos on a backpacking trip in the High Sierra discover that the perils of contemporary life don't stop at the trailhead. Rarely have the glories and hardship of backcountry travel, and the grandeur of this landscape, been so effectively portrayed. Revoyr strikes gold with this unexpected, fast-moving tale of high-altitude danger."
—Janet Fitch, author of Paint It Black

"Four urbanites from Los Angeles embark on an uncharted trail, invoking shadows of Deliverance in this fast-paced story which celebrates the mountain world of rock, sky, and woods. Nina Revoyr's wilderness thriller leaves readers as breathless as the hikers."
—Ron Carlson, author of The Signal

"Nobody knows Los Angeles like Nina Revoyr! Sharp-witted and big-hearted, Lost Canyon shows us what happens when the melting pot boils over. If you're brave enough to handle the truth about American race relations, this is the book for you."
—Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow

Praise for Wingshooters:

"A searing, anguished novel....The narration and pace are expertly calibrated."
—Los Angeles Times

"Hauntingly provocative...an excellent choice for book discussion groups."
—Library Journal

From the Publisher

11/01/2015
Attorney Todd Harris, real estate agent Oscar Barajas, and Gwen Foster, a black woman overburdened by a job working with at-risk youth, are brought together by their personal trainer, Tracy Cole, for an adventuresome hike in the Sierra Nevada. Tracy is remarkably blasé when asked whether they'll encounter danger, which they certainly do: they find themselves caught between white supremacists and Mexican drug runners in the wilderness, which certainly pulls together this disparate group. What makes this latest from Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming) more than a suspenseful tale of survival and personal growth is the slowly worked out differences of race and class, well articulated throughout. VERDICT An absorbing read with good social context.

Library Journal

2015-06-04
Revoyr (Wingshooters, 2011, etc.) sends four Angelenos mired in First World angst to confront the wilds of California's Sierra Nevada range. A more disparate group of left coastals would be hard to assemble. Grieving and near burnout after a promising client's suicide, Gwen counsels troubled Watts youth. Latin-American realtor Oscar rode the housing bubble into BMW-Rolex country and then down to near-bankruptcy. Todd's a Century City attorney, a farm boy-turned-star athlete who married old money. Tracy, their trainer and trek organizer, is an intense woman fascinated by her Japanese-American grandfather's tales of Sierra escapes from Manzanar's internment camp. Weaving in character back stories, Revoyr travels LA's patchwork neighborhoods—delineating gangs and money, color and prejudice—and nicely sketches "the grand, untamed Sierra," all isolated peaks and frigid waters. While the reluctant partners trust neither their own abilities nor each other's competence, Tracy, "kicked up into a weird, uncomfortable gear," urges them to tackle another trail after officials report fires on their planned route. An old ranger suggests an isolated, near-forgotten trail beyond Owens Valley. As they push past their perceived physical limits, Tracy takes a wrong turn, and the quartet stumbles onto a high-country cartel-run marijuana farm. They're taken prisoner and forced to make hard choices—to cling to civilized morality or to make a brutal but practical decision. Injured, without food, the four forge across wilderness and over a pass two miles up, "the place where storms are made," seeking help, all the while pursued by armed killers. Like Deliverance, a tense and sometimes-violent morality tale formed in the crucible of physical duress.

Kirkus Reviews