In this novel of high adventure and derring do, set in 1873 in Russian Alaska, four men steal a canoe and escape from a labor camp in Sitka, 1,200 miles to Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. Originally published in 1983, this classic American novel intertwines local history and fiction to evoke the land, people and texture of the Pacific Northwest.  (PNW200, $13.00)