Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peace Like a River | 2001 | Leif Enger | Buy |
| 2 | So Brave, Young, and Handsome | 2008 | Leif Enger | Buy |
| 3 | Virgil Wander | 2018 | Leif Enger | Buy |
| 4 | I Cheerfully Refuse | 2024 | Leif Enger | Buy |
Leif Enger’s standalone novels number four, published between 2001 and 2024. Each is a work of literary fiction set in the American Midwest, written in the warm, observant prose that has become Enger’s signature.
Peace Like a River (2001) is told by an eleven-year-old boy whose family pursues his fugitive older brother across the frozen Dakotas in the early 1960s. So Brave, Young, and Handsome (2008) follows a struggling novelist who joins an aging train robber on a journey through the early-twentieth-century West. Virgil Wander (2018) is set in a declining Lake Superior town where a car accident shakes loose long-buried secrets. I Cheerfully Refuse (2024) moves into speculative territory, imagining a near-future Great Lakes region shaped by climate change and economic collapse. All four books balance adventure with reflection and humor.