This book tells the story of nineteen-year-old Ruth Swain, bedridden with illness, the sound of rain incessant outside her attic window. Suffering from an inexplicable disease, she had to return home to recuperate after only six months of university. Her father, Virgil, was once a poet with great ambitions, but he was consumed by poverty and despair; her grandfather, Abraham, was a legendary salmon hunter who spent his life battling the rapids of the Shannon River. The stories of three generations of the Swain family unfold slowly through the eyes of this bedridden girl. Ruth's bedside table is piled high with books left to her by her father—his inheritance. She reads them one by one, searching for her father's shadow in the words, and for the meaning of life.
本书讲述了：十九岁的露丝·斯温卧病在床，阁楼的窗外雨声连绵。她身患难以名状的疾病，大学只上了半年便不得不回家休养。父亲维吉尔曾是一位怀揣伟大抱负的诗人，却在贫困与失意中耗尽了自己；爷爷亚伯拉罕是一位传奇的鲑鱼猎手，一生都在与香农河的激流较劲。三代斯温家男人的故事，通过这个卧床的女孩缓缓流出。露丝的床头堆满了父亲留下的藏书，那是他送给她的遗产。她一本一本地读下去，在文字里寻找父亲的影子，也寻找活下去的意义。
本书讲述了：十九岁的露丝·斯温卧病在床，阁楼的窗外雨声连绵。她身患难以名状的疾病，大学只上了半年便不得不回家休养。父亲维吉尔曾是一位怀揣伟大抱负的诗人，却在贫困与失意中耗尽了自己；爷爷亚伯拉罕是一位传奇的鲑鱼猎手，一生都在与香农河的激流较劲。三代斯温家男人的故事，通过这个卧床的女孩缓缓流出。露丝的床头堆满了父亲留下的藏书，那是他送给她的遗产。她一本一本地读下去，在文字里寻找父亲的影子，也寻找活下去的意义。
