Michael has been receiving some great reviews for his first novel The River and we wanted to share them with you. If you’ve read The River, let us know what you think! We’d love to hear about your own experience with The River.
This first review is from Kathleen Samuelson, Editor-in-Chief of CBA Retailers + Resources, in her column for October:
The way that Neale describes The River gives it life. The River could be frightening and angry, but also inviting and calm. It provided a foundation on which one’s faith in God could either float in His arms, or fight against the current.
I had the pleasure of seeing Michael Neale perform “The River” in song. recitation, and film last month at Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. He brought the book to life: the struggles, the heartache, the salvation, the joy. And for the first time in a long time, I didn’t miss the ocean so much. But I longed to hear The River.
BookPage had this to say about The River:
Michael Neale’s The River gently sweeps readers along like a leaf in a current as Gabriel struggles with beginning a new life after a terrible loss.
Throughout this artfully crafted story is a genuine sense of The River as a force of nature to be reckoned with, respected and learned from.
And another great review from Booklist:
Neale’s novel is a powerful allegory about faith in something more powerful and mysterious than oneself. Gabriel loved The River as a child, but when it took his father and he was sent to live with his mother in Kansas, he developed a fear of the water. A trip to The River as a teenager reminds him of his connection to this wild place. As he trusts The River to lead him forward, Gabriel’s life flourishes into more than he dreamed it could be while in Kansas. Neale evokes a relationship between his protagonist and nature as real as any Gabriel has with the people around him as he learns that by trusting The River to guide him, he will end up where he is meant to be. The River is not without its rough patches, enabling Neale to illustrate how it is in the toughest situations that we find our way.
