Ten top books about rivers

Katharine Norbury is the author of the debut novel, The Fish Ladder.

For the Guardian, she tagged her top ten books about rivers, including:

Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey

This wonderful story of two gamblers has water running through it. Oscar and Lucinda meet on a ship; Oscar accepts a wager to deliver a glass church that Lucinda is sending as a gift to a man he believes to be his rival. The church is to be transported from Lucinda’s factory on the coast of New South Wales to a remote riverbank community in the outback. A tale told in language as bright and sharp as shards of glass. Moby-Dick, Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, and Huckleberry Finn all spring to mind as comparisons in scale and epic grandeur.

Read about another entry on the list.

Oscar and Lucinda also appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best horse races in literature, ten of the best fossils in literature, ten of the best thin men in literature and ten of the best card games in literature, the Guardian's list of ten of the best unconsummated passions in fiction, and Elise Valmorbida's top ten list of books on the migrant experience.

--Marshal Zeringue