'A poetic account of the dialogue Richards has conducted with the river during half a century of listening to the whisper and gurgle of its myriad voices - a lyrical evocation of the sights, sounds and scents of a great Canadian waterway' - The Sunday HeraldLines on the Water is the story of a town, its river and the community of people who fish in it. David Adams Richards is a prize-winning author but when he's not writing, he's mostly fishing and when he's fishing it's always along the banks of the Miramichi river. This great river and the poachers, guides, visiting city suits and friends who share it with him have woven themselves into the fabric of his life and in Lines on the Water he pays tribute to them all. Spinning fishy tale after glorious fishy tale we join him and his companions on the endless search for the next great fishing pool and along the way remember why we love to read, and why we have to fish.

David Adams Richards is one of Canada's most celebrated writers. He has won the highly prestigious Governor General's Award twice and was joint winner of the Giller Prize with Michael Ondaatje. His novel Mercy Among the Children was published to great acclaim by Jonathan Cape in 2001. He lives not far from the Miramichi river with his wife and two sons.

Lines on the Water is a great book about fishing. The last fishy book on the YJ list was Thomas McGuane's The Longest Silence, which was hailed as an instant classic and has sold nearly 10,000 copies in paperback.