The River Is Home: A Novel [Paperback]

Poor in material possessions, Skeeter's kinfolk are rich in their appreciation of their beautiful natural surroundings. The river on which they live—with its food supply, steamboats, and floods—figures strongly in their lives as the source of life, change, and death. Though their life is a simple one, it's filled with friendship, loyalty, love, and compassionA native of Mendenhall, Mississippi,Patrick D. Smithearned both a B.A. and a master's degree in English from the University of Mississippi. He moved to Florida in 1966 and began writing the novels about Florida that would make bring him lifelong recognition:The River Is Home,The Beginning,Forever Island,Angel City,Allapattah, andA Land Remembered. Smith was nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize: in 1973 forForever Island; in 1978 forAngel City, which was produced as a movie of the week for CBS TV; and in 1984 forA Land Remembered, which was an Editors' Choice selection of theNew York Times Book Review. In the annual statewide Best of Florida poll conducted byFlorida Monthly Magazine,A Land Rememberedhas been ranked #1 Best Florida Book eight times. In 1985 Smith's lifetime work was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1999 he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, which is the highest cultural honor bestowed by the state of Florida. In May 2002 Smith was the recipient of the Florida Historical Society's Fay Schweim Award as the “Greatest Living Floridian.” The one-time-only award was established to honor the one individual who has contributed the most to Florida in recent history. Additionally, Smith earned the 2012 Florida Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing presented by the Florida Humanities Council. The judges felt that “Patrick Smith's books have been hugely significant to the citizens of Florida . . . [and] thatA Land Rememberedis an iconlÓ&