Two friends on a long journey down a river in the wilderness of northern Canada are beset by a raging wildfire approaching from a distance upriver. Delayed by an encounter with a man who claims his wife has disappeared, they go back to search for her, only to find themselves with grave doubts about the truth of his story. Caught between danger ahead and behind, they use every ounce of their strength and skill to try to survive.

It's a riverting, fast-moving story, filled with brilliantly written passages of natural beauty, friendship, but also terror, fear and loss. The astonishing moment when the widlfire overtakes them feels like a furious apocalyptic encapsulation of the foremost modern anxiety of environmental destruction overwhelming struggling humanity.