Arizona writer and photographer McNamee profiles a river that within living memory formed, along with its tributaries, the most important river system in the southwest US, draining an area of 88,000 square miles--a little larger than England and Scotland combined. He covers genesis, the transit of Eden, mountain people and desert people, the first conquest, gathering storms, the tightening noose, death knell, disappearing waters, and regaining paradise. He has added an afterword to the 1998 first edition. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)