Some dreams warn you. Others pull you under.

Emma’s recurring dream began in childhood: a blizzard in a vast and open terrain. A feeling of impending doom—of having nowhere to go. No one coming to help. And then, a glimpse of hope in the form of a very large rock the size of a two-story house. It had rough edges and stuck out of the ground at an angle. If she could only reach the rock, she knew she’d be saved. But the dream never let her get there.

Now in her twenties, Emma’s world is shifting in ways she can’t explain. Her partner at the time seems perfect—charismatic, fit, and intellectual, with public speeches drawing a devoted following in their hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado—but something about him no longer feels familiar. And her beloved cat has disappeared without a trace.

On a group backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon, a single night along the Colorado River opens a truth buried deeper than Emma ever thought to look—one tied to her dreams, her partner’s detachment, and the story of her life she thought she understood.

A Night Along the River is a genre-bending psychological and metaphysical coming-of-age novel—an unforgettable story of adventure, growth, and love in the face of unexpected darkness, where the unrecognizable becomes familiar.