About Grace (2004)

Meteorologist David Winkler has the blessing/curse of seeing his most vivid dreams come true, and when slumber reveals that he'll lose his 5-month-old daughter to a flood, every passing minute feels like a cold frisson of terror. To avert tragedy, David abandons his bewildered wife and trots off on a decades-long, worldwide odyssey in search of answers. Adrift in the Caribbean, he befriends Naaliyah, a budding young scientist who soon leads him to the Yukon Territory for a silent, soul-searching winter sojourn that evokes the best of Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series. Accomplished short-story writer Anthony Doerr nearly drowns beneath an annoying surfeit of drippy water metaphors, but About Grace remains grounded because he keeps a steady grasp on Winkler's roiling emotions, never allowing the reluctant antihero to become a simpering, aimless fool.