Electrifying!

The Great Alone   by Kristin Hannah

I was totally immersed in Hannah's novel right from the start. A superb story of a young girl's childhood with two broken, dysfunctional parents played out in the depths of Alaska in the early 1970's.

Leni Allbright is thirteen when her ex Vietnam Vet POW father decides to take them to Alaska.

My heart bleeds for the whole family caught in the vortex of the damage that war plays on the survivors--if the emotional and mental anguish can even be called that. As Leni so eloquently and sadly states, 'One thing every child of a POW knew was how easily people could be broken. Leni still wore the shiny silver POW bracelet in memory of a captain who hadn’t come home to his family.'

Leni and her mother Cora are swept up into Ernt's latest grand plan. They will go to Alaska to take up the offer of a property in what surely must be the 'last frontier'--the wilderness of the far north where survival is not guaranteed and where life is a continual effort to stock up for the long winters broken by the vast amazing summers. The palate Hannah employs to paint the landscape is mesmerizing. The human state she portrays is relentless and stark, compassionate and revealing all at once. Ernt, Cora and Leni will come face to face with their own strengths and failings and the leaching away of Ernt's self control.

Leni is forged into a person who is 'Alaska -tough'. 

The portrayal of the locals, a mixed bag of people, from the off-grid survivalists, to those who have been challenged by and met the demanding way of life, to those who have just plain fallen in love with this untamed wilderness, all ring true.

A mesmerizing novel of survival, loss and harsh truths. The story surrounds you and absorbs you. It displays a raw and powerful story force that has the pull of legend. A tale that eats into your heart and gives pause for reflection on a multiple of levels. To my mind the title, The Great Alone, plays on both the mental states of the central players and the challenge of the vastness and wildness of Alaska.

A NetGalley ARC

*****