The heart-stopping classic 1970 novel—an unforgettable tale of violent adventure and profound inner discovery.

Four middle-class men from suburban Altana decide to embark on a three-day canoe trip down a particularly wild section of a river in Georgia. For them the trip represents a break in the domestic routine, a chance for adventure with few real risks, and the last occasion to see a beautiful valley before the river is dammed up. Their leader, an enthusiastic outdoorsman and champion archer, is obsessed by the desire to pit himself against nature.
When two of the group are attacked viciously by sinister mountain men, a mildly adventurous canoe trip explodes into a nightmare of horror and murder. Men stalk and are stalked by other men, the treacherous river becomes a graveyard for those without the strength or the luck to survive, and one man, forced to assume the leadership of the group, must call up his resources to try to achieve deliverance.