Winner, New Brunswick Book Award (Non-Fiction)
Longlisted, Miramichi Reader's "The Very Best!" Book Awards (Non-Fiction)
A CBC New Brunswick Book List Selection
An Atlantic Books Today Must-Have New Brunswick Books of 2020 Selection

The Restigouche River flows through the remote border region between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, its magically transparent waters, soaring forest hillsides, and population of Atlantic salmon creating one of the most storied wild spaces on the continent. In Restigouche, writer Philip Lee follows ancient portage routes into the headwaters of the river, travelling by canoe to explore the extraordinary history of the river and the people of the valley. They include the Mi’gmaq, who have lived in the Restigouche valley for thousands of years; the descendants of French Acadian, Irish, and Scottish settlers; and some of the wealthiest people in the world who for more than a century have used the river as an exclusive wilderness retreat.

The people of the Restigouche have long been both divided and united by a remarkable river that each day continues to assert itself, despite local and global industrial forces that now threaten its natural systems and the survival of the salmon. In the deep pools and rushing waters of the Restigouche, in this place apart in a rapidly changing natural world, Lee finds a story of hope about how to safeguard wild spaces and why doing so is the most urgent question of our time.

Michael Harris calls Philip Lee "one of the country's best-kept journalistic secrets." Drawing on his skill and experience as an investigative journalist, Lee based Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna on a wide range of published material, on diaries, and other confidential records, and on interviews with McKenna and those around him, from family friends to political enemies. Beginning with stories for The Sunday Express that prompted the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage, Philip Lee's writing has received numerous honours. In 1991, Lee joined the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal and Saint John Times Globe, where he wrote the award-winning series Watershed Down and the book Home Pool. In 1998, after two years as editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal, Lee returned to the Telegraph Journal as editor-in-chief. Under his leadership, the newspaper and its weekend magazine, The New Brunswick Reader, won several regional and national newspaper and magazine awards. Philip Lee currently writes for the Ottawa Citizen and is head of the journalism program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

Philip Lee's profile page

• Long-listed, <i>Miramichi Reader</i>'s "The Very Best!" Book Awards (Non-Fiction)
• Winner, New Brunswick Book Award (Non-Fiction)