Confluence: An adventurer sets out on the last journey of his twenties while searching for the elusive Golden Mahseer in the foothills of the Himalayas

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Set in the majestic foothills of the Indian Himalayas, explorer, writer, NASA engineer, and would-be husband Garret Fitzpatrick goes on the hunt for the toughest freshwater fighting fish in the world, the Golden Mahseer—a carp-like beast that can grow up to nine feet in length and is often found at the confluence of two rivers. Just reaching the stomping grounds of the great fish can be an adventure of a lifetime, with lush jungle landscapes, waterfalls, dirt mountain roads and an assortment of wildlife onlookers from good luck goats to observant monkeys. Guided by local fishing legend Vidya and businessman Chandan, Fitzpatrick seeks to tame both fish and inner demon with an unlikely jungle-fishing companion: his snake-fearing girlfriend.

Descriptive, hilarious, and thought-provoking, Fitzpatrick brings readers to the Indian state of Sikkim and asks us to consider the meaning of conservatism and control while describing the difficulties of peeing by light of a headlamp. With vivid characters and beautiful imagery, Confluence is a fun short story about the merging of exploration and an explorer who, after nearly a decade of solo adventures living and traveling across Europe and Asia, finds that his biggest adventure may not be the one last epic journey of his twenties, but the one that lies ahead.