Little Lost River

“I was gripped by Johnston’s account of Fran’s and Cindy’s growing friendship and their struggle for independence. Johnston’s characterization of the two girls is vivid and compelling, and her writing is excellent. I enjoyed reading Little Lost River more than any novel I have reviewed during the past several years.”
—Mary Clearman Blew, author of Lambing Out, and Other Stories

"Pamela Johnston’s LITTLE LOST RIVER is a novel of redemption with human, rather than spiritual, underpinnings. What redeems these characters is love—the imperfect love that is the best thing we have to offer one another. Johnston’s evocative prose lets the reader feel how the landscape of the West limns these characters’ lives. I love the psychological acuity of this novel, whose youthful characters speak to us in voices that are confiding, clear-minded, and probing. 
—Elizabeth Oness, Twelve Rivers of the Body

“Little Lost River is a powerful meditation on the joys and limitations of motherhood. Johnston writes with rare honesty of the barren spaces in the most intimate relationships, but suggests, in her moving laconic prose, that by accepting these gaps and lapses, we may find some solace in the hidden underground river connecting us all.”
—Trudy Lewis, author of The Bones of Garbo and Private Correspondences