Summit County selects ‘Go as a River’ for 2026 community read

Shelley Read’s Go as a River is the 2026 One Book One Community read, inviting Summit County readers into a story of love, loss, resilience and towns changed by reservoirs. Photo: TownLift

‘Go as a River’ explores love, loss and resilience against the backdrop of a Colorado town submerged by reservoir construction

PARK CITY, Utah — Summit County readers will turn to a story of displacement, resilience, and home this summer as “Go as a River” by Shelley Read becomes the 2026 One Book One Community selection.

The annual community read invites residents to read the same book to build shared conversation around literature, history, and common experience. This year’s main event with Read is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. on July 30 at the Park City Library.

Read’s debut historical fiction novel is set in Iola, Colorado, a small ranching town later submerged by the construction of the Blue Mesa Reservoir. The story follows 17-year-old Victoria Nash, who runs her family’s peach farm and is forced to reckon with love, loss, survival, and the disappearance of the only home she has known.

The book’s setting carries local resonance in Summit and neighboring Wasatch Counties. TownLift has previously reported on similar histories beneath local reservoirs, including the former settlement of Rockport, now under Rockport Reservoir, and Keetley, Elkhorn, and Hailstone, whose remains lie beneath Jordanelle Reservoir.

In a 2025 TownLift report, Jordanelle Reservoir was found to cover the submerged remains of Keetley and Elkhorn/Hailstone, including mining structures, former workers’ quarters, and agricultural fields. A 2021 TownLift story reported that the area now covered by Rockport Reservoir was once home to the settlement that became Rockport before the federal government bought the land in 1952 and built Wanship Dam.

That local history gives this year’s community read a regional lens, connecting Read’s fictionalized account of Iola, Colorado, to Wasatch Back communities that have been altered or erased by reservoir projects.

“Go as a River” explores themes of grief, endurance, nature, and the ways people rebuild after profound loss. Inspired by true events surrounding Iola’s destruction in the 1960s, the novel follows Victoria as she leaves her family farm, survives in the surrounding mountains, and eventually searches for a way forward as the Gunnison River threatens to overtake her homeland.

The One Book One Community program is offered in partnership with Summit County Library, with support from the Friends of Park City Library, the Friends of Summit County Library, and Dolly’s Bookstore.

“Go as a River” is available now as an ebook and audiobook on Libby with no wait. Physical copies are available through the Park City Library, Summit County Library, and Dolly’s Bookstore.