“From fake news stories... to crowds rioting for contact with celebrities, the novel is rife with events echoing our present times....

“ A compelling read from beginning to end.”

“The story serves as a resonant counterpoint to today’s #MeToo movement.”

“Downriver is compelling, entertaining reading, and for anyone with an interest in the history of film, particularly women in film, it’s essential...”

“ It tells the unheard story of an pre feminist filmmaker who was able to enter the predominantly male industry at the beginning. I recommend this book and get it for the young women you know.”

“As testament to Anderson’s integration of fact and fiction, and absorbing character development, his fictive character Anne seems to have earned a place in the history of motion pictures by novel’s end.”

• Amazon Kindle reviews

Evan Anderson’s prose is beautiful and it is punctuated by vivid descriptions and great dialogue... a gripping story that explores the origins of the movie industry with characters that are as memorable as they are realistic.

• Readers' Favorite

The book, Downriver: A Tale of Moving Pictures Before Hollywood is an historical novel set during the early days of cinema. The lead character, Anne Blackstone, is fictional, but women pioneers in the field have "leading roles" as well. Anne enters the field before it becomes a big business, when motion picture language was being written, and when women, even from a lower class, had access to its creative tools. With a cast of strong characters, both real and imaginary, Downriver gives readers the experience of what it was like to be alive at the origins of an industry which is, today, so much a part of our lives.

This look at cinema history has been given new visibility by the recent release of “Be Natural: the Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché,” a feature documentary about the life and work of cinema's first female director, who was also a screenwriter, producer, and studio owner. Alice is one of the major characters in "Downriver."

The site Reader's Favorite calls the book “a gripping story that explores the origins of the movie industry with characters that are as memorable as they are realistic.” Diana MacIntyre of The Silents Majority says "It brings together women of the cinema who paths may not have crossed-but should have. I love this book because I love the movies and the history of this era. The layer over layer of stories, movie history... Downriver will make it's mark upon your heart! … Let it speak to you... like silent film speaks to you in your inner eye,... like poetry makes you see farther than you have ever seen before."

Evan Anderson has been a writer since being inspired by his Junior High English teacher and the writers Herman Hesse, C.S. Lewis and Ray Bradbury, who he had the privilege of meeting on several occasions. In his hometown of Los Angeles he was the editor of "Spectrum" magazine, and a member of the Artists Repertory Theater in West Hollywood. After moving to upstate New York he helped initiate the Glaring Omissions, a writer's group that continues to this day. Evan was one of four New York writers to read at the Festival of the Coffeehouse Poets in Ontario. In 2002 he was selected as one of 23 Hudson Valley authors for inclusion in the short fiction collection, Prima Materia. He also wrote special material for children's theater, and scripts for "The Adventures of Marjorie," an homage to radio series of the 1940's. "Downriver" is his first novel.