The River is the fourth of six novels by Peter Heller; other novels include The Dog Stars (2012) and The Painter (2014). He’s also the author of four books of nonfiction. Heller is a freelance writer and has been a contributor to magazines such as Outside and Men’s Journal. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and was drawn to both the outdoors and literary pursuits.

In an interview with Martin Wolk, Heller named Ernest Hemingway as one of his earliest influences, which is evident in this novel’s descriptions of nature, the river, and fishing, which have a tone and style similar to Hemingway’s. In addition, Heller noted that the novel (like many of Hemingway’s works) contains “much autobiography”: He told Wolk that the novel’s main characters, “Jack and Wynn, meet on a freshman orientation hike at Dartmouth, just as Heller met his own best friend decades ago” and adds that “Wynn, an artist and gentle giant, is based on” his friend, while the author is more like Jack, though not quite as hard-nosed (Wolk, Martin.