River of Traps
A New Mexico Mountain Life
A Pulitzer-nominated portrait of changing times and changing lives in the mountains of New Mexico
River of Traps combines words and photographs to tell the story of Jacobo Romero, an oldtime northern New Mexico villager who befriends the authors and initiates them into knowledge of land, water, and a way of life long rooted in the mountain valley that became their common home. Critically acclaimed and widely admired, River of Traps has been justifiably called a western classic.
Accolades
- Designated as a Santa Fe New Mexican Bestseller
Praise
“Anyone who wishes to know [northern New Mexico] can skip the galleries full of pink howling coyotes, stay home and read an exceptional documentary book, River of Traps.”
Read full review »
— New York Times Book Review
“On a raft of perfectly crafted sentences, the book floats through the reader’s mind, buoyant and serene. DeBuys never exaggerates or sounds an awkward note, whether in tone or detail. The equilibrium of the prose reflects a genuine empathy with the subject matter . . . The book should be admired and read for a long time to come.”
— Kansas City Star
“An irresistibly engaging story . . . deBuys [is] a storyteller of poetic breadth with a discerning eye for subtle, sensitive associations.”
— the Nation
Alex Harris
Alex Harris is a distinguished American photographer, a professor at Duke University, and a founder of the Center for Documentary Studies and of DoubleTake magazine. He has photographed extensively in the American South, Alaska, Cuba, and New Mexico. He is the author or editor of fourteen books including, most recently, The Idea of Cuba.
William deBuys
William deBuys is a writer and conservationist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of The Walk and River of Traps, coauthored with Alex Harris, which was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and a 1990 New York Times Notable Book of the Year. DeBuys’s other books are Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California, which received a Western States Book Award, Seeing Things Whole:The Essential John Wesley Powell, and A Great Aridness. His shorter work...
- Price: $24.95 buy »
- Pages: 240
- Size: 8 x 9.5
- Published: Oct 2007
- Status: Available
- ISBN: 9781595340351
- B&W photos: 64
