Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “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.
