East of the Mountains is a novel by American author David Guterson. Set in modern day Washington State, the novel relates the story of retired heart surgeon Ben Givens. The story is related from a third-person limited narrator and switches between the present day and Ben’s recollections of important events from his younger years. Dying of colon cancer and having recently lost his wife, Ben sets out to commit suicide by making his death look like an accident on a hunting trip. However, Ben's plans are interfered with by a series of fateful encounters that divert him onto a path towards spirituality and self-discovery. East of the Mountains explores themes of life and death, fate, perspective, and the search for meaning.
David Guterson gained a reputation through his first two novels for poignant, elegiac prose, morally rooted subject matter, carefully researched details, and, perhaps most of all, a sense of place. Gu...
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David Guterson