DESCRIPTION

In William Vande Kopple focuses on wonders of the natural world as he pursues his quest to catch many kinds of fish in many kinds of settings -- from bass and bluegills in West Michigan, to pink and king salmon in the St. Mary's River, to muskies in Murray Lake near Grand Rapids and Eagle Lake in northwestern Ontario. Frequently joining Vande Kopple on this quest are members of his family -- one or more of his three sons, his father or his new daughter-in-law, sometimes his two adopted nephews from Russia. Adventures and misadventures with these relatives lead Vande Kopple to ponder the loves and longings of family life. From many of these musings, Vande Kopple moves on to grapple with spiritual matters -- stinging losses and sustaining hopes, the unpredictability of memory and the certainty of grace, the extent of God's providence and the grasping that is appropriate for humans, and what, after all, heaven will be like.