The River of Kings

Brothers Lawton and Hunter Loggins kayak down the Altamaha River in southeast Georgia to take their father's ashes to the sea, a journey that holds terror of legendary river monsters, lurking alligators, and half-crazed men protecting their water shanties and meager territories. The brothers soon suspect that their father's death was not an accident, and when they follow their instincts into dead-end, shadowy waterways lined with prehistoric cypress and tupelo, they find the reason Hiram died. The hard, angry Hiram lashed out because of constant bad luck yet remained deeply respectful of the river, and both his dark, mysterious story and the boys' experiences are shadowed by the ghosts of history. In the 1560s, French explorers accompanied by the artist Jacques le Moyne built an encampment on the river and are seen here facing attacks by Native Americans and Spaniards, and near starvation. The entire narrative unfolds as a perilous, life-changing journey, richly illustrated with le Moyne's original sketches.