“This quietly profound book belongs on the shelf next to Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.”

—The New York Times

“The captivating story of an inveterate river wanderer who left a mark on many he met along his journeys before suddenly vanishing... A paean to eccentricity and endurance and a study of a life that changed the chronicler’s own perceptions. McGrath’s writing is measured and confident, the product of a journalist’s persistence in investigating the truth behind so colorful and contradictory a figure... A memorable and intoxicating exploration of what we make of those who reinvent themselves.”

—Kirkus, starred

“Exquisitely written and deeply reported, Riverman is a gem of a book. It contains everything: adventure, mystery, travelogue, and unforgettable characters. Most of all, it illuminates the wonderful curiosities of life.”

—David Grann, bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon

“Riverman is as miraculous and hopeful as its protagonist, the Zelig of America's waterways, Dick Conant. It’s a great book for people like me, who read Into the Wild but have shed our self-destructive wanderlust and settled into middle-age. This book will make you want to buy a canoe and spend less time on Instagram.”

—Emma Straub, bestselling author of All Adults Here

“Conant comes to life on the page as vividly as any character in American literature.”

—William Finnegan, bestselling author of Pulitzer Prize winner Barbarian Days

“Superb… a tenacious, entertaining feat of narrative nonfiction that owes much to John McPhee’s splendid chronicles of peripatetic Americans.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“A masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.”

—Booklist, starred

“This is a beautifully told and near-mythical tale of one man’s quest to find peace through communion with nature, and through perpetual motion. My heart was deeply stirred by Riverman, and by Ben McGrath’s brilliant, clear, and humane storytelling. This one will stay with me for a long time.”

—Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of City of Girls

“McGrath’s reconstruction of Dick Conant’s tangled career and yearning soul is so meticulous, so obsessive, that Conant comes to life on the page as vividly as any character in American literature. Conant wanted his story told. Here it is, in all its pathos and sheer unlikeliness. You will never see rivers and the towns on their banks the same way after reading Riverman. Ditto, I predict, for expansive, raggedy strangers.”

—William Finnegan, bestselling author of Pulitzer Prize winner Barbarian Days

“McGrath retraces the remarkable life of this gentle man whose life on the water touched so many. Riverman honors a free-spirited American naturalist and modern-day explorer (a blend of Forrest Gump, Huck Finn, and even Don Quixote) who shucked a conventional lifestyle for complete freedom, at significant personal cost. A masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.”

—Booklist, starred

“Fascinating… a story that wends its way through the fluid state of American masculinity in our tumultuous times.”

—The Minneapolis Star Tribune