In Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature.#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller (February 2018)A People “Book of the Week”Buzzfeed’s “Most Anticipated Women’s Fiction Reads of 2018”Seattle Times’s “Books … Women’s Fiction Reads of 2018”
Seattle Times’s “Books to Look Forward to in 2018”
Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter north where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
Cora will do anything for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown. Thirteen-year-old Leni, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, has little choice but to go along, daring to hope this new land promises her family a better future.
In a wild, remote corner of Alaska, the Allbrights find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the newcomers’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.
But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.
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Really good story. Loved the Alaska setting.
Amazing book about a woman in Alaska and her journey with a dysfunctional family and the difficult lines between abuse, mental illness, love, family and the bond that is so hard to break. Combine that with beauty of the Wilderness that is Alaska, and the homesteaders during the 70s and the 80s who are trying to find a Utopia life. Combine that with long Winters, isolation, dangerous living, and then woman coming of age Torn Between Love and the beauty around her. Stunning story
Her best book yet.
This book captivated me. The story was believable and the characters well drawn. I ached for Leni and cared deeply for her. The Alaska wilderness is beautifully frightening and challenging and mirrors the life in the All right home. I recommend this book highly.
Loved The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Highly recommend. Her writing is wonderful. As good as The Nightingale.
I tried very hard to love this book, I really did, but in the end I just liked it. The four stars is for the visual imagery, the wonderful writing, and for Hannah being at the the top of her game with respect to genre. For me, it was just a bit too soap opera-ish for my liking.
The novel starts off well and lays down the framework for what seems to be an interesting plot. Young deeply loving couple, Vietnam steals husband who becomes a POW for 6 years while wife has a baby and raises her without help. Husband now has what we now call PTSD with flashbacks, nightmares, and anger. Husband cannot hold a job, hard to make ends meet, family moves often with schemes to make money, failure after failure until one day husband inherits a log cabin and a plot of land in Alaska from a war buddy who died. So family, with no preparation, takes off for Alaska. Ok, not too bad – but then from there, every dramatic event that could be artistically included in this story was employed in an effort to heighten the emotional impact on the reader. There are extreme paranoid survivalists, abused spouses, deaths in the wilderness, teen pregnancies, estranged parents…. get the picture? As the reader, Hannah has you on an emotional roller coaster that does not give you adequate time to truly drink up her beautiful prose of the Alaskan wilds and appreciate her research and knowledge of survival in a vast unknown fraught with danger.
After writing copious pages about the Allbrights (the protagonists of this story) learning, preparing for and surviving the Alaskan frontier, Hannah rushes the final chapters of book as if she was running out of allotted space or late with a deadline. She also sews things up too neatly for my liking. There was nothing to ponder about; not much left to the imagination. However, it is a quick read, well written, and entertaining. For that it is worth reading on a nice summer day with a drink in your hand or hearing ocean waves gently crashing in the background.
Gives insight into the troubled lives of some of the broken soldiers who have fought for our freedoms. This story unfolded years ago . Hopefully things are different for veterans now.
The story line was terrific and characters are the well written . Hated for it to end but have been cheered by the fact that they are making movie from it.
Kristin Hannah is one of my very favorite authors and this is a must read! This book is realistic and will have you hooked from the very beginning. Anyone who has ever read her novels will say, they keep getting better and better!
Congrats to Kristin Hannah. I absolutely loved this book. I made my husband read it and he could not put it down. I anxiously await for the movie.
Great insight in dysfunctional family life along with information about life in Alaska
Real characters with real lives in a part of the US that I have never visited. Brought Alaska to life!
Author Kristin Hannah has certainly done it again. The Great Alone is a magnificent book about the beauty and darkness of Alaska. It is also a story about love…its intensity, its beauty…but also the cruelty of love. The characters are very complex- with their own set of emotional problems– and this draws the reader into the story from the first page. The Alaskan setting, enchanting and frightening, is so visually described that the reader cannot help but feel its unique powers of both endangerment and protectiveness that surrounds its residents. Overall, this ultimately is a story about survival…of loss love, renewed love, constant love, righteous love, and parental love that is boundless.
This is a great story and very highly recommended.
My #2 favorite by this author so far!
kept me coming back when I should have been doing something else!
Author has a flair for describing Alaska and all its challenges.
Great character development, excellent description of the wonders of Alaska and her people.
I really enjoyed the portrayal of the Alaskan wilderness in the 1970’s. Her characters were real and interesting. Great summer read and even better if you have visited or are going to visit Alaska.
Heart wrenching. Tough story.
This book has a little bit of everything. Wonderful description of remote living in Alaska, love story, survival and a psychological thriller. It caught my interest right from the start and I wanted to keep reading it to the end.