Ruin by S.M. Browning

A broken bone leads north.

Chicago fulfills none of Irving Clary’s desires. City smog stifles any hope for an off-the-grid existence and, with it, his marriage. Relocation to Wisconsin’s northwoods is the final effort a desperate man employs to revitalize a wife’s stagnant love and turn from villain to hero in the eyes of his son.

The simpler means afforded with this change in lifestyle more than repairs these labored relationships. A cabin is constructed in a dried riverbed with the help of a hermit.

Forty years prior to Clary’s story, Dole Walker lives a parallel dream. Caught between his love for the river and his woman, Dole is given an ultimatum which eventually leaves him with neither. Heavy alcohol abuse and retreat from society strip away layers of Dole’s sanity. He witnesses his dream die and the river evaporate. Only through a stray dog and newfound hobby is he able to re-establish his will to live, which leads him to Irving Clary.