“Go as a River,” the emotional and epic debut novel from author Shelley Read, has landed with content producers Fifth Season and Mazur Kaplan for a film adaptation.

Fifth Season, formerly known as Endeavor Content, will produce the project alongside Paula Mazur and Mitchell Kaplan. Released in 2023, the book became an instant national bestseller and topped the Sunday Times list in the United Kingdom.

Compared to American sagas like “The Four Winds” and “Where the Crawdads Sing,” the backdrop for Read’s work is the wild beauty of mid-century Colorado. The coming-of-age story follows a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter. Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, “Go as a River” is not only a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but of finding courage, friendship, and, finally, home―where least expected. 

Read will consult on the project. Multi-platform publisher Spiegel & Grau will executive produce.

Read is a fifth-generation Coloradan and has served as senior lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, teaching writing, literature and environmental studies. She founded the environment and sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Read holds degrees in both writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s graduate program in creative writing. She lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. Read is currently repped by literary agent Sandra Bond of the Bond Literary Agency.