An epic family read, Kirk Lombard's The Shadow Stream

​Kirk Lombard is an author, angler, sustainable fishmonger and tuba player who worked inside the juvenile rehabilitation system. His first book, the award-winning Sea Forager’s Guide to the Northern California Coast, was described as “poetry” for fish by NPR.

​Now he's back with a throwback to family-reads-of-yore, this epic follows a troubled boy and a host of hilariously vexed animals who must save a river before it’s dammed, so they can save themselves.

​Gabriel (“G” for short) is wasting away in the Abiddon County Juvenile Center when he’s introduced to the Shongunk River by his dying uncle. The river valley — trash-heaped but chock-full of mysteries and fish — wins G over. But, as G has learned, good things can’t last. The Shongunk is scheduled to be dammed by a local developer. In a matter of days, it will cease flowing, and all of the talkative creatures who live in the river valley will be as homeless as G.

​Just as G decides it’s no time to accept his fate, so too do the animals. To inspire an uprising, a young trout is nominated to make a fateful journey up the river; a raccoon swears a violent oath against humans; and a newly sober buck leads his skittish flock out of harm’s way. Together with G, they show there is power in all of us, even the smallest minnow.

​An event for the whole family on a Friday evening.