Blood Knots―A Memoir of Fathers, Friendship, and Fishing

Blood Knots is a brilliant and dramatic memoir of an angler’s life.It places Jennings in the front rank of natural history writers.As a child in the 1960s, he was fascinated by the rivers and lakesaround his home. Beneath their surfaces waited alien and mysteriousworlds. With library books as his guide, he applied himself tothe task of learning to fish. His progress was slow, and for years, hecaught nothing. But then a series of teachers presented themselves,including an inspirational young intelligence officer, from whomhe learned stealth, deception, and the art of dry-fly fishing. So beganan enlightening but often dark-shadowed journey of discovery.

It would lead to bright streams and wild country, but would endwith his mentor’s capture, torture, and execution by the IRA. BloodKnots is about angling, about great fish caught and lost, but it isalso about friendship, honor, and coming of age. As an adult, Jenningshas sought out lost and secretive waterways, probing watersat dead of night in search of giant pike. The quest, as always, is formore than the living quarry. For only by searching far beneath thesurface, he suggests in this most moving and thought-provokingof memoirs, can you connect with your own deep history. Jenningsoffers here a striking, elegiac narrative for lovers of unique memoirsand the finest fly-fishing literature.