A River Runs Through It

It was Mark Twain who wrote, “Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” John Wray, a fan of Twain’s, is hoping that’s true for his new novel, Canaan’s Tongue. Instead of embarking on the usual book tour, Wray convinced his publisher, Knopf, to fund a wackier jaunt: a two-week drift on a rickety homemade raft from Helena, Ark., to New Orleans on the Mississippi River, where much of the novel is set.