"In this potent novella from Argentine writer Almada ( Brickmakers ), the killing of a stingray sets off a series of fateful events along an unnamed South American river. Like a dream, this otherworldly tale lingers in the reader's mind." -- Publishers Weekly "A virtuoso literary work. Flashbacks and side scenes deepen the story which curls and twines like a thrusting tropical vine through the past, roping in sisters, wives, old lovers, boyhood adventures, and jealousies." --Annie Proulx "Told with the hallucinatory atmosphere of a dream, this astonishing, stark novel doesn't turn away from the hypnotic and disturbing effects of violence. The title reads like a refusal in a nightmare, as we round the bends of our present lives and resist the inevitable encounter with the past. Not a River plunges us straight into the depths of its silences, bracingly so--the longer the quiet goes, the more terrible the rupture." --Manuel Munoz "Dark and atmospheric, Almada's latest grapples with violence, masculinity and memory.

" --Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine "Now with her third novel, Not a River , Almada accentuates the power and allure of nature in a story that synthesizes many of the themes that she has long explored in her writing. The result is her most accomplished work to date, a luxurious wisp of a novel that never wastes a word, in a vital and tender English-language translation once again by McDermott." --Cory Oldweiler, Southwest Review.