*NO AI TRAINING
My second novel, The River Is Everywhere, was released on March 14, 2023 by Vine Leaves Press. The book was a finalist for the 2023 National Indie Excellence Award in literary fiction as well as for the 2023 American Fiction Award and 2024 American Legacy Award in their coming-of-age categories. It’s available worldwide in print and electronic format from all major booksellers including Amazon , Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, and Bookbub. It can also be ordered directly from the publisher as well as from most independent and multi-chain bookstores in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia.
If you would like to purchase a signed copy of The River Is Everywhere, you can buy one directly from me. Just send me a message.
You can add The River Is Everywhere to your Goodreads reading list by clicking here.
If you are a retailer or bookseller who would like more information about The River Is Everywhere, you can download the book’s sell sheet here. Wholesale orders of The River Is Everywhere (10+ copies) are available directly from Vine Leaves Press at a 40% to 55% discount, often cheaper than wholesale orders via Ingram or other distributors. Check out this link for more information.
Reviews of the book have been positive, and I’m looking forward to meeting more readers in person. If you’re interested in having me do a reading or would like to me to participate in a discussion with your book club, either in-person or virtually, send me a message using this website’s contact page.
Critical Praise for The River Is Everywhere
“Provost’s hero is a Franco-American Holden Caulfield. But Salinger’s protagonist comes from rich Manhattanites, while Provost’s character has his roots in the little-understood cultures of the Francophone Northeast of our continent. From her brisk, well-observed narrative emerges a touching and intimate evocation of these little-known communities.” —David Vermette, author of A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans
“As a fifth-generation Franco-American, I was heartened by this story set in an ethnic culture whose experiences are underrepresented in American literature. Ernest Benoit is a modern-day adventurer on a quest for meaning as he learns about love, loss, and his own soul. Provost’s writing is vivid, and her pace is swift. Readers of all ages will be drawn to this moving coming-of-age tale.” —Paul Marion, author of Lockdown Letters & Other Poems and editor of Atop an Underwood, the early work of Jack Kerouac
“The River Is Everywhere is a YA novel that belongs to the great story-telling tradition that reaches back through Dante’s Divine Comedy to Homer’s The Odyssey to the fire-lit caverns of prehistory. . . . Emilie-Noelle Provost’s best writing begins when she reaches the word “like.” Almost everything her narrator says after “like” is a fresh, provocative comparison that carries the reader on to the next simile toward the realization that we are not alone, not alienated, not separate but part of an existence that while perplexing is a parsing of the word “universe,” with the stress on “uni-,” oneness, family, home. —William Tremblay, author of The Luminous Race Track, Walks Along the Ditch, and Duhamel: Ideas of Order in Little Canada
“Ernest Benoit’s odyssey begins as a search for some meaning that can help him better understand his best friend’s tragic death. But his at times dangerous journey quickly becomes a search for his own roots and soul. Along the way, he negotiates narrow escapes, evades the police in two countries, and comes face-to-face with the true nature of love, loyalty, and forgiveness. Provost is a gifted storyteller. The River Is Everywhere is well worth your time.” —Stephen O’Connor, author of Smokestack Lightening
“A rich and haunting coming-of-age story with a hero reminiscent of a less cynical Holden Caulfield, The River Is Everywhere explores the best—and worst—of human nature, with charming, complex, and fully rendered characters that are hard to forget.” —Liz Michalski, author of Evenfall and Darling Girl
“Provost’s artistry shows through in her skillful balance of rich detail conveyed with a teen’s vocabulary and voice.” —Joan Vermette, Résonance
The River Is Everywhere Cover Blurb
Sixteen-year-old honors student Ernest Benoit has always followed the rules. But after his best friend drowns on Cape Cod, he begins to question his family’s devout Catholicism. He disrupts an Advent prayer service at his Catholic high school, and his life will never be the same.
A blizzard leaves Ernest stranded in a depressed western Massachusetts mill town after he boards a bus to Manhattan to avoid being sent to a Jesuit boarding school. It’s the beginning of a months-long journey that leads him to rescue a young girl from an icy river, into the bed of a lonely middle-aged widow, and to the woodland cabin of Roland Laliberté, a recluse who can shoot with the accuracy of a sniper.
When Ernest is accused of a serious crime, Roland smuggles him over the Canadian border where they settle into life on the New Brunswick farm where Roland grew up. Ernest takes a job in the Lalibertés’ sawmill, and falls in love with the girl next door. But it’s not long before the local police start asking questions, and it’s suddenly unclear whether he’ll be able to return home.
ENP
Emilie-Noelle Provost 
I loved The River is Everywhere. I couldn’t put it down. Thank you Emilie for sharing the Franco-American perspective.
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Thank you so much. I’m very happy you enjoyed the book. Although it’s fiction, the story is very close to my heart.
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