The End of the River (2008) is my first trade book. It is published by
The End of the River made the Globe and Mail's list of TOP 100
BOOKS OF 2009. This annual selection represents the "best and most
influential books of the year", published in Canada and the U.S.
The Globe and Mail said:
"Harvey has. . . a fascination and deftness with language and its effects,
and with the memorable luminescence of a story well told."
"The End of the River is a brilliant and instructive book, alive with the
author's seditious intelligence, his inner compulsions and restlessness,
the lot of which are wedded to his literal journey in a way that recalls the
travel writing of one of Harvey's heroes, Sir Richard Burton, who during
the mid-1800s explored the Sao Francisco River that so obsesses Harvey
today."
"The book is founded on the author's lifelong fascination with fish, an
attraction that began in the "bottle room" of the British Columbia
Provincial Museum when Harvey was a child, and eventually extended to
fish and fishing cultures as far away as Japan, the Philippines and South
America. Harvey's book sweeps across continents and oceans, taking us
to hand-wringing conservation conferences in Europe, to his home river
— the Fraser — in British Columbia, to the fish hatcheries and markets of
the Far East — visiting in the process seedy Thai hotels, Amazonian
outposts and Brazil's raucous Carnaval."
More praise for The End of the River
“A wonderful and engaging read with a samba beat, on the plight of the
planet's living waters. A great way to open peoples' eyes."
Brian Harvey is that rare fish, a scientist who can write.” —Dr. Thomas
Lovejoy, founder of the Public TV program “Nature”
“Provides a new way to appreciate the aquatic life we so voraciously
consume.” —J.B. MacKinnon, author of “Dead Man in Paradise” and “The
Hundred Mile Diet”
“Harvey may have created a new literary genre – science travel
writing.” —Quill and Quire.
