This is an absolute must for anyone wanting to experience the old North East Kingdom feel. Having lived in the Kingdom myself I could relate to the way of life expressed even though the book was placed many years before me. Also having met Mr. Mosher it lends a peaceful tone that is not matched anywhere in the world. Any of his other writings are well worth the time taken to read them. It was a pleasure to be able to shake his hand and thank him for the beautiful treasure he had blessed us with.

I was recommended this book by a friend while climbing Worcester Mountain near Middlesex, Vermont. I grabbed it just before a solo overnight on a section of the Long Trail. The only copy the store had was an autographed (for cover price), but the owner assured me that Mr. Mosher would appreciate my stuffing the book into my pack for a hike in the Green Mountains. I trusted the person who recommended the book, but was not prepared for how good it is.
One part Beat, one part magical realsim, one part historical fiction. All this (and more) combined with an engaging writing style that keeps the pages turning. More than any other book, I felt completly satisfied at the end. Every word sits gently in my memory, so that I won't need to re-read it for a while. It now sits on the shelf in the company of 'The Dharma Bums' and 'Sometimes a Great Notion'.

I first read this book in college in 1987, and go back to it every few years when I need to be reminded how wonderful life is. It is beautifully written, incredibly funny and very, very moving. I don't know why this book isn't more widely read, it certainly deserves to be.

I am a hypercritcal reader and I love it when I pick up a book I cannot stop reading. I have subsequently ordered all of Mosher's books and cannot wait to read them. Mosher is not a good writer he is a great American writer. He builds character and place like the master he is. Thank you Mr. Mosher.

I'm saddened to see far too many people pigeon-hole Howard Frank Mosher as a 'writer of regional interest' -- maybe only those who live along the Mississippi should read Mark Twain, then. True, Mosher's books all take place in Vermont -- but these are such well-written, absorbing stories, the characters so unforgettable, that any one who appreciates fine literature can thoroughly enjoy them.

This volume collects 6 of Mosher's short stories along with the title novella -- the latter being possibly his most well-known work, having been made into an exceptional film with the amazingly-talented Rip Torn in the role of a lifetime as Noel Lord, Mosher's cantankerous ex-lumberjack. Lord is mentioned in some of the other stories, as well as in some of Mosher's novels -- and other characters make appearances in more than one work as well.

Set in 1927 Vermont, 'Where the rivers flow north' takes the familiar theme of the rugged individualist going up against the evil, unfeeling corporation, and breathes new life into it. Mosher's flowing style, combined with his incredible ability to bring to the printed page all the nuances of his characters' personalities -- warts and all -- give this and all of his works the finishing touches that only a fine craftsman can give. Noel Lord's Native American housekeeper/wife, Bangor, is one of the most memorable characters you'll ever run across. She and Lord have a classic yin-yang relationship that, most likely, neither one would acknowledge. A reader from any part of the nation can get inside these people, can feel and experience everything that happens to them -- and any time we can do that, we can learn and we can grow.

The characters in all of the stories here are, as in all of Mosher's works, vividly drawn -- Alabama Jones, the innocent-but-worldly aspiring carnival performer -- Burl, an old woman lying in a nursing home waiting to die, looking back at her life with a combination of bitterness and longing -- Eban and Walter, brothers, neighbors, at odds in their life over things large and small, but brothers -- a man dying, clinging to life through a kept peacock -- a boy passes through a coming-of-age event, a flood, which changes forever the way he views both his brother and his father -- another man, Henry Coville, makes some painful recollections and decisions as he feels the end of his life approach. Mosher paints them all with the deft brush strokes of an artist who intimately knows his subjects and the landscape in which their lives are played out.

Howard Frank Mosher is an immensely talented, always entertaining writer -- he deserves to be widely read, and what a treat is awaiting those who read him for the first time...!

After I found out that my in-laws knew Howard Mosher personally and my husband had him as a teacher and coach in school and hung out with Howard's kids in high school I HAD to read a book written by him. This is the first book I read by Howard and I can't wait to read more. What a great illustration of Vermont in the early 1900's!

In his eponymous novel Marie Blythe, Howard Frank Mosher proves again why he is one of my favorite writers. French Canadian Marie, the book's heroine, is truly a remarkable woman. She survives the loss of her parents, life with a clan of gypsies, an unmarried pregnancy and loss of her child, and near death by exposure to change her identity. Over time, she goes on to learn to read, go to normal school, and become a teacher. Oh, yes, she is nearly murdered in the end by her crazed ex-lover. While all of this may sound somewhat melodramatic, it is not; Mosher makes it merely the stuff of a captivating, totally engaging story. Set, as all of Mosher's books are in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, Blythe vividly evokes both a time (post-Civil war to early twentieth century) and place (Vermont village of Hell's Gate). Above all, though, this is a novel of character, and Marie's combination of bullheadedness, naivete, energy and faith carries the day. Recalling the French Canadian priest who counseled her as a child, Marie in a time of crisis "remembered his advice to maintain a little faith in something, if only in fishing." Mosher, for his part, renews my faith again in great writing.

I have to say, A reader from South Berwick, Maine, sums it up perfectly. But I'd like to add this to it by saying it is a yet another "can't put it down" book. Mr. Mosher has captured the area he writes most about. When you read this book, you will be taken there.

This novel covers one woman's struggle to survive in the harsh environment between Quebec and Vermont at the turn of the century. You can't help but admire her strength. For anyone interested in Franco-American culture in northern New England as well as Mosher fans like me

There's a story told about a Buddhist monk who could look into your eyes and see your grandmother's soul. The collaboration between author Howard Frank Mosher and photographer John M. Miller, called "Granite & Cedar: The People and the Land of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom" gives the common reader a chance for a similar view. This remarkable book gives a profound opportunity to see into and beyond the familiar of "home."
"Granite & Cedar" is set in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom; the black and white photographs (most taken between 1971 and 1976) represent a simpler time when the region was a world unto itself. Then the Interstate rolled through, and it was suddenly easier to have second homes here. Long-time residents could come and go with ease, and the world of the Northeast Kingdom changed. Patterns of life shifted, and familiar traditions suddenly reappeared as people, places and ways that were different.
Mosher's haunting story of Aunt Jane Hubbell weaves through the photographs like hand washed thread turning into fine lace. The story opens in 1965 as the plans for the Interstate are introduced. Aunt Jane has fierce stubbornness and loyalty to family, both living and dead. Will she stand up to the engineers at the public hearing for the highway, or will she back down in deference to her 78 years and ancestors lying at rest? How will she be remembered?
We see the time-worn buildings standing tall beside symbols of an emerging era of rapid obsolescence; we see wool jackets and spruce boards holding their ground to synthetic fleece and vinyl siding; we see men and women whose lives and ways are somehow very familiar although today - they are gone.
We see into a place and time well used by those who lived off the land and were shaped by it and who like Aunt Jane were, above all, practical. Mosher and Miller have unwrapped the gift we thought unique to the legendary monk.
For those with connections to the Northeast Kingdom "Granite & Cedar" will be tenderly familiar. And yet strictly regional, this book is not. For those who only know Vermont's fringe from a distance, the connection to home will prevail.
"Granite & Cedar" is Mosher and Miller at their best.

For those who wish to explore the wonderful prose, thoughts and observations offered by this pioneering outdoorsman, I will highly recommend this book. Bringing together essay samples from a number of his books, the reader will enjoy the insights Olson offers as he journeys through America's wilderness. He provides a writing style that is comfortable to read and his words will transport you from your chair into the canoe with him as he paddles/camps his way through places many of us can only hope to go. It takes a chapter or two to recognize that Olson doesn't write with one chapter flowing into the next, but rather each chapter is a story in itself. And, with that understood, sit back, read and enjoy the trip(s)!

Mark Twain knew it: Truth is stranger than fiction -- but lies are far more interesting than truth.

And Howard Frank Mosher, as splendid a liar as Twain himself, might have delivered the most interesting book you'll read during the upcoming, three-year bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's 1804-06 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.

But be forewarned: If you're among those humorless academics who believe history should not be trifled with by liars, you must certainly skip "The True Account: A Novel of the Lewis & Clark & Kinneson Expeditions," perhaps the funniest historical novel about the West since "Little Big Man."

Thanks to a recently discovered manuscript hidden for 200 years, we now know that Lewis and Clark were the first runners-up in the race to the Pacific Ocean. The adventurer who beat them (just barely)? Private True Teague Kinneson, a Vermont schoolmaster, veteran of the Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys, playwright, inventor, narco-agronomist and explorer.

Wearing a belled nightcap to cover the copper plate screwed into his skull (a prosthetic made necessary by a life-altering blow sustained while drinking rum with Ethan Allen), a suit of chain-mail, galoshes and an Elizabethan codpiece, Private Kinneson begins his journey with his artistic nephew, Ticonderoga, into terra incognita.

Why? He wishes to teach Indian tribes of the West how to cultivate hemp, which he describes as "That panacea for all the spiritual ills of mankind." Oh, and to beat Lewis and Clark.

Along their path to the Pacific, True and Ti encounter highwaymen, hostile and not-so-hostile Indians, horny women, cannibals, a circus of freaks, and some of the great real-life people of the day, such as Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Boone (and his frisky daughter Flame), and Sacagawea.

And in the midst of his frolic, our American Quixote invents rodeo, baseball and a marvelous hot-air balloon; discovers Yellowstone; and outwits the Devil Himself.

Private True Teague Kinneson is every mythic traveler who ever believed the shortest distance between two points was a dream, from Odysseus to Gulliver to his beloved Quixote. And like the Cervantes masterpiece, this boisterously funny novel is more picaresque than poignant, although like any good farce, it occasionally plucks the readers heart-strings as well as his funny-bone.

Great parodies resonate at the precise moment we are taking ourselves to seriously (do we really need three exhaustive years to celebrate Lewis and Clark?) Mosher's voice is pitch-perfect, satirical without being too sardonic. And Private True Teague Kinneson just might find his rightful place in American letters somewhere between Gus McCrae and Forrest Gump.

OK, it's worth noting that the national epic of Lewis and Clark's expedition surveyed the continent's resources, made contact with many Indian tribes living there, found a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, explained the flora and fauna of the region, created one of the first true Native American heroines, helped build a transcontinental nation, and ... blah blah blah. It was serious business for Captains Lewis and Clark. You can look it up, in all its breathless, geo-political, bio-diverse, Ambrose-flakking, socio-aggrandizing, -- and mind-numbing -- detail.

Who cares?

Private True Teague Kinneson reminds us that sometimes adventures, like books, are just for fun.

Book Review
A Stranger In The Kingdom was an incredible book that tells the story of a young boy's discovery of the world around him. I enjoyed the introduction to this novel because I felt I got to know the characters, especially James Kinneson, because the author Howard Frank Mosher spent a great deal of the opening chapters describing James and his family in detail. They talk about the relationships in the town of Kingdom and the Canadian influences on the town. I found it surprising to see the racism that exists in the northern town. The book especially gets interesting when a murder takes place that the new preacher of the town is accused of. The trial sequence which takes place throughout the last chapters of the book seemed to be a little monotonous yet I still feel the rest of the novel more than makes up for it. I personally enjoyed the descriptiveness of the author. It made the novel a smooth read and told the story well.

A Stranger in the Kingdom is an amazing story about friendship, mystery, and overcoming the overwhelming presence of racism. Set in Vermont in the early 1950's, A Stranger in the Kingdom poses all questions of race, betrayal, friendship, and murder. When the new minister in town is found to be a Negro, opinions and fists begin to fly. However, the helping hand of the county newspaperman proves to be the aid needed in surviving the slew of people in Kingdom County. The story, told through young James Kinneson, makes a twist when a young Canadian girl comes to the county seeking employment. As things begin to go wrong, the unthinkable occurs, murder. It is here that the powerful force of racism steps up upon its pedestal. The new Reverend is placed on trial for murder and prosecuted possibly for the man he is than the crime that he may or may not have committed. Howard Frank Mosher has written a gripping story presenting prejudice, friendship and devotion, loss of innocence, betrayal, and so much more. A Stranger in the Kingdom provides both good reading material and holds the poise of a great American novel. It is truly a great book and pushes all means of friendship and the bond between people.

Reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' was like death by peanut butter; it was too dry to be swallowed alone. If you are looking for something with a similar theme and would like to make it through the book alive, try digesting 'A Stranger in the Kingdom' by Howard Mosher. Loss of innocence through racial discrimination is the underlying theme experienced through a young Vermont boy. Even if this doesn't particularly interest you, the oddities of the Kingdom County citizens will.
'A Stranger in the Kingdom' isn't full of cliffhangers; instead, the tension slowly builds until the reader is so anxious the book cannot be set down. One knows that a murder will take place, but the victim is not made clear until just beforehand. As for the criminal, can his lawyer prove he was framed? Not only will the reader pick up this book before going to bed, but also on lunch break, in the bathtub, and between internet pages downloading.
Mosher's character development is excellent at the least. Though there are many characters, each has his or her unique qualities that make him/her stand apart from the others. Elijah and Resolved were the town outlaws, the judge would do anything to be able to fish longer, and Claire would tell her story over and over again to anyone willing to listen. The great characterization allows one to relate more with the book and enjoy it more thoroughly.
Mosher's writing style is, in part, what drew me into the book. Unlike 'All the King's Men,' it can be easily understood and is what one would call "a good read." While there is not much vocabulary to it, pages cannot be skipped or else the meaning of colloquial terms shall be lost. The sentences flow easily and have a good length variation. Dialogue is also balanced within the book; it does not rely solely on dialogue or text. This keeps the late-night reading do-able because one is not drowning in paragraphs with no breaks in sight.
Is 'A Stranger in the Kingdom' to be recommended? Yes, highly recommended, and without regret.

I strongly recommend this heartwarming book written from a child's point of view in the beginning. Later on, as the boy grows, the reader gets acquainted with his myriad of experiences and encounters with various people and animals. In the end, the reader is filled with a sense of peace and serenity as all comes to a close. This book had me laughing, crying, smiling, cringing, and recalling the times of growing up.

A very good book coming from a time long removed from what we currently have. It really defines the kind of people that settled this country or mayby not...... read the book

Mosher is a brilliant storyteller. His characters are too real to be fictional! This ranks as one of my top ten favorites.

In honor of his 50th birthday, Howard Mosher decided to take a solo journey exploring his home ground. His chosen turf is the "north country," the borderlands between the United States and Canada. Mosher traveled from Maine to Washington, meandering a few miles one either side of the border.

In this account of his odyssey, Mosher intersperses short anecdotes from his life as a resident and traveler in these areas, combined with mini-sketches of the people and places he encounters. Nobody and no place merits more than three pages of Mosher's spare prose. Mosher voices himself in the taciturn manner of the hardy border people. He strives for a rough-and-ready effect, implying that his itinerary was haphazard, and that his encounters were primarily ones of chance. I suspect that a lot more planning went into the trip than Mosher suggests.

My favorite chapter was the one on "fresh starts," in which Mosher profiled people who had left one life for another. For Mosher, traveling through places both familiar and completely new was its own form of fresh start.

Howard Frank Mosher has crafted a warm, inviting story of his journey across the America via the backroads border of Canada. This book invokes the wanderlust... Read "Stranger in the Kingdom" and "Northern Borders" for superior fiction. Warm and intriguing.

Howard Frank Mosher is a gifted writer. His descriptions provoke the imagination into painting landscapes and portraits that the human eye ordinarily can't see. I found it literally impossible to put this book down, and I will definitely be reading the rest of Mosher's stories!

I was quite impressed with the first half of this book, the first I've read by Mosher. Each early chapter stands almost as a self-contained short story about colorful, but well-developed characters in a small Vermont-Canadian border town, mid-20th century. Some outstanding writing, with quirky details about family histories done especially well. Unfortunately, as the connections between the stories get developed, you can see from a mile away where the main story is going, and after all the characters are introduced you focus more on the dialogue, which isn't quite as well-written. Still, the strengths of this book encouraged me to read more Mosher. Stranger in the Kingdom was a huge disappointment--trite, predictable, and with nothing new to say. But I'm still going to read at least one more Mosher.

The Fall of the Year is a wonderful book, especially for dedicated Mosher Fans. I'd like to point out to first-time readers of his novels that his masterpiece is A Stranger in the Kingdom and I strongly recommend reading that first. Most of the people in the town and county where his books are set are featured in considerable detail in that book. That is the place to really get to know them, so that when you pick up one of his other books, you recognize the person being written about and have a better understanding of his/her character. Also, don't be surprised that he sprinkles many of his books with touches of the surreal or supernatural. You wont get a concrete explanantion of some of these phenomena, but it's obvious that Kingdom County (real life Orleans County, Vermont) is a magic place for him and he makes both wonderful and terrible things happen there. I'm proud to own every one of his books, I was hooked after A Stranger in the Kingdom and even led my book discussion group in it a few years ago. You can re-enter a time and place that is fast disappearing from this country; many things about the way of life he describes are already gone for good. But dont pass up Mosher, whatever you do. If you read this book and felt you didnt get much out of it, read Stranger in the Kingdom and then come back. All his books run through the whole history of the area and are worth having as collectors items.

Mr. Mosher has a great love of time and place, and this love shows quite clearly in his series of novels about the fictional Kingdom County, Vermont, in the mid part of this century. I've read several of his works, and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. When I began this latest one, I had assumed, because of its structure, that it was simply a series of short stories. Eventually I realized that it was, indeed, a novel, and a wonderful one at that! I loved the characters and the often bizarre situations in which they found themselves. Readers will, I'm sure, be way ahead of the narrator in discovering what is going on around him, but the charm of the writing, and the pure beauty of the story (and its perhaps too-sentimental ending) will enchant you. If you yearn for things the way they used to be, when life just seemed to be simpler and more fulfilling, you'll enjoy reading this book.