★美國筆會獲獎作家最新力作
★適合喜愛《Heartwood》和《The Return of Ellie Black》的讀者

The story of a brave, young woman seeking wholeness and love in the forests of Michigan's wild upper peninsula, and answers about the house fire that took everything.

The summer she turns eighteen, Abby’s Uncle Dennis invites her to help him in his study of trees in Michigan’s wild and lush Upper Peninsula. A lover of the natural world—particularly birds—but ambivalent toward the sciences, Abby isn’t sure how much she’ll take to the work, and she doesn’t understand why her stepdad, grandmother, and other family members are so determined that she accept the job. However, she finds herself falling in love with the beauty of the woods and the independence they offer, and she finds comfort in the order of measuring each tree.

This is also the area where her mother was raised, and to which Abby has long-standing ties, despite leaving with her stepfather immediately after the house fire that took her mother's life. Her childhood bestfriend Brew invites Abby to a party where she meets a troubled girl named Seda, on the run from her abusive ex. Abby and Seda discover an abandoned cabin that becomes a sanctuary for them both, as Abby seeks to protect Seda while also processing her unrequited love for Brew. Abby is desperate to remember what happened the night of the fire, and as the summer of 1996 unfolds, she will be forced to reckon with the truth.

This book is a coming of age novel that expertly delves into the connection between our perception of ourselves and our natural environs.

 

Diane Les Becquets is the author of Breaking Wild (Berkley, 2016) and The Last Woman in the Forest (Berkley, 2019). Breaking Wild, an Indie Next Pick and a national bestseller, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist, and was featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” It was the recipient of the Colorado Book Award in Fiction, the New Hampshire Outstanding Work of Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Award in Fiction.