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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I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. In return for honest review and my thoughts on this book. This was my first time reading any book by Kristin Hannah. I need and will read more from her now. To be honest I am not sure how I will start this review because this book gave me all kinds of feels. This book is set in the years of 1974 -1986 And in the bush of Alaska. Leni is a thirteen young girl who parents moved her around. Leni was always the new girl who didn’t feel like she belonged. Her father who went and served over in Vietnam. When he came back he wasn’t the same. He was very abusive towards her mother Cora. Thats why they moved so much because Leni father couldn’t keep a job because of his behavior. They got a letter in the mail from the father of one of the men her father served with about some land in Alaska. Cora thought moving to Alaska would help Leni father. And that’s where the story really takes some turns. I know this book took me so long to read but I didn’t want to end. At times I was happy and sad and other times I was angry with Leni father and even her mother for not doing things. But has a reader I am glad that Kristin Hannah wrote this story the way she did. There are lots of women who don’t leave their relationships. And to see this story through Leni and even her mother’s eyes was breath taking at times. Thank you so much Goodreads for this read. This will be a book and these characters always be close to my heart. I highly recommend this book.
This was another excellent book that left me with mixed feelings. Watch below to find out why.
http://www.carlalaureano.com/2minbookreview-the-great-alone/
I love all of Kristin Hannah’s books that I have read/listened to on audible. This is no exception. It is very sad to hear or read about battering of a wife and fear to leave a batterer.
The way author put weather of alaska it is awesome.
Another great read from Kristen Hannah. Read my full review on my website: http://patriciakeelyn.com/2018/07/1244-2-2/
my daughter lived in an abusive situation for years and I would get her out of it try to help her get her life toghether and she wouuld go right back to her abusive husband and stay with him until she couldn’t stand the beatings any more it was a visous cycleuntil she finaly had enoughbut the cost to her and her children was too much. I thought maybe by reading that book I could better understand my daughters life but not so much.Spouseal abuse is a terriable thing for any family to contend with.
Well written. by an experienced author who creates mixed emotions for the reader to feel. It so accurately portrays Alaska with its unusual people and lifestyles. The harsh living conditions and difficult weather are accurately described, too. This is a real winner!
I would call this book a sort of romance novel. I wouldn’t have chosen this book if I thought it even hinted at romance. If you haven’t guessed, I am not a romance lover. They just make you want to pinch your husband’s ear. This book has adventure, suspense and yes romance. I hated to put it down and I hated that it ended. I miss the characters and I enjoyed reading about Alaska the strong and hardy and quirky people who move to the middle of nowhere. I am definitely not one of them. Maybe, since I am now a widow and my husband is safe from ear pinching I’ll give the romance novel another try. This is the first Kristin Hannah book I’ve read, it definitely won’t be th last.
Kristen Hannah’s book really showed how war devastates a soldier and his family….
This was a beautiful and disturbing read. Beautifully written, well-developed characters, wonderfully described setting, and disturbing events played out. Many hard topics were explored in the life of Leni as her family settled in the wilds of Alaska. As a young teen she dealt with herself and her loved ones affected by being uprooted, death, friendship blossoming into love, PTSD (before it was called that) in her father, a Vietnam vet and POW, survival, mental illness, murder, traumatic brain injury, forgiveness, pregnancy, loyalty, and love. That sounds like a harsh list for one story, but the harshness in her life mirrored the harshness of the untamed frontier in which she lived and survived.
This is definitely a book worth reading. It is one that lives up to the anticipation of its release this year.
Subject matter (domestic abuse) is disturbing but well presented. The book is not as good as The Nightingale but still an engaging read.
Holy Hannah, you guys. I don’t even know how to start this review. My feelings about this book are all over the place but I think maybe the important thing to take away from this review is: this book made me feel.
That said, it didn’t always make me feel the way I wanted to feel. It wasn’t a happy book. I felt angry and depressed for a good portion of it – but I felt those things sort of…viscerally. Like I couldn’t shake this book off when I put it down. The emotions in this book became my emotions and for better or for worse, that’s a pretty amazing feat.
It’s also worth noting that as angry and frustrated as I got with this story, I never wanted to walk away from it. It’s incredibly compelling. I had to know what happened next and then I had to know how it ended. Ms. Hannah is a talented writer and a wonderful storyteller. This particular story wreckedmy heart, over and over again. But in the end it felt completely worth every emotional punch Ms. Hannah delivered. It was brutal. It was beautiful. It was hopeless. It was redemptive. It’s not a simple story and did not inspire simple reactions from me.
Despite not being able to walk away from the story, it did drag a bit for me in the middle. It got a little repetitive at times and – this may have been intentional to build that feeling of frustration and unease – but after a while I did find myself skimming to move the story ahead and find out what happened next.
Over all – this was kind of a wild ride. I adored the ending. After the beating my emotions took, the ending felt like a sweet reward and I turned the final pages with dripping eyes and a giant smile. However, my emotional experience during this book makes it nearly impossible to assign a star rating. My feelings are literally all over the place. It’s five stars for storytelling and the fact that I couldn’t put it down. It’s 1 star for the fact that I legit hated this story sometimes. Like blood pressure boiling, red in the face, hated (but I understand those feelings just prove that I was invested, and that – as I said in the beginning – this book made me feel and that, in it’s own right, is a remarkable thing). It’s 5 stars for the completely rewarding if somewhat bittersweet ending.
My feelings are as complicated as the characters and storylines in this book – which I guess, after I unravel my own hang-ups and biases, means that you should absolutely read this one.
It kept me interested enough to find out what happened to the characters, but too much drama for my taste. The time period was interesting as well, along with the scenery.
I realize I am “late to the party” on the “The Great Alone.” It’s b/c I’m not a big fan of man-versus-wilderness plot themes, eg “The Call of the Wild.” And Alaska just honestly doesn’t appeal to me. (Thanks, Sarah Palin.)
But…. I was wrong. This book was so much MORE than fighting for life in a cold wilderness. It is about domestic violence; PTSD (before it was called that) wreaking havoc on lives; and love – mother love, young love, and friends who will do anything for you. There were SO many big themes in this great audio version of the book. And Ms. Hannah’s lyrical descriptions of the beauty of Alaska made me feel as if I were actually there. I have read very few authors who can describe a setting so effectively.
As to the plotline, Leni is a 13-year-old caught in her parent’s relationship: they are desperately in love, but Leni’s dad suffers from PTSD due to his years as a POW in the Vietnam War. He cycles between normalcy and violence against his wife. Leni and her mother, Cora, can see the cycle waxing and waning and do their best to prevent the cycle from achieving its completion in Ernt’s violent emotions being expiated upon Cora. Because of his issues, Ernt can’t hold a job for long and the family are basically vagabonds.
And then Ernt inherits land in Alaska from a buddy who died in the War. Ernt convinces Cora that leaving Seattle and heading north to an unseen farmstead will be what finally heals the family dynamic. They arrive in a small town on the Kenai peninsula, from which they are a long drive out into the wilderness w/ only a rudimentary, filthy cabin on land filled w/ junk and rotting animal pens. They arrive woefully unprepared, but the townsfolk welcome them and do what they can to teach them how to hunt and fish, and preserve what they catch and what little they manage to grow in the short Alaskan summer. Ernt absolutely loves the wildness and libertarian live-and-let-live feel of the place. Cora and Leni worry about the approaching long, dark Alaskan winter. How will they manage?
Leni finds her first school friend ever in Matthew Walker. He is the son of Tom Walker, one of the town’s long-time citizens. Ernt doesn’t like Tom almost immediately, equating him w/ “the man” that he had tried to leave behind in the lower 48. But he does find empathy w/ Harlan Walker, Ernt’s dead friend’s father, and Harlan’s family, all of whom live on a survivalist compound filled w/ guns and booze. You just know this isn’t going to help Ernt’s condition at all…. and it doesn’t. Alaska did not solve Ernt’s mental problems. They grow worse over the years and you know there is going to be a tragic denouement for the Albright family. It is shocking and sad, but what are the repercussions for the surviving members of the family?
I can’t say any more w/o providing spoilers. Just when I thought the novel was surely finished, Ms. Hannah moves the surviving Albrights along in time, having them deal w/ the aftermath of more than one tragedy rippling out from the main one. These “sub-plots” feed into the over-arching theme of survival, and make me ponder: What actually IS survival? Is it merely existing? Or is it rising above overwhelming circumstances to thrive?
You’re gonna have to read this one for yourself to make this decision. I give it a wholehearted five stars.
What a fantastic book to get a feeling for the vastness, beauty, and dangers within state of Alaska. The descriptions were so vivid and I was truly transported. Alaska has always been somewhere I have wanted to visit, and this book verified it would not disappoint.
The plot, for me however, moved too slow. The survivorship, tenacity, and loyalty Leni, Cora & Matthew face is immeasurable and I envied their strength. Yet, I felt the story really didn’t take off until at least 60% of the way through. I found myself saying “Really?!? This again?!?” Which understandably I have never been in the situations Leni and her mother, Cora experienced so who I am to judge.
Although an amazing and inspirational book of strength and love can conquer all, I just wish it would have moved through at a little hastier pace.
Alaska is a vast land that many of us will never understand, let alone see physically. The Great Alone is a look into a family after the husband comes back from Vietnam and cannot get back into normal life. The alcohol certainly doesn’t help, and as they are on the brink of being homeless, with no money Ernt receives a letter that one of his buddies that he was in ‘Nam with left him some land in Alaska.
Ernt’s wife and daughter hope that this might be what it takes to get him out of the darkness that takes him over when alcohol is consumed and nighttime eases on in. The family of three packs the little they have and heads towards Alaska for a new beginning. The story is told through the daughter, Lenie. On the brink of becoming a teenager she is used to upheaval in her life and is excited but scared for this new adventure.
Alaska proves to be a hardship for the three of them. They are welcomed with opened arms, however quickly are told they have a lot to learn and prepare for if they want to make it. With the help of the community, the family gets settled in and life does seem good. It is very different than city living and they really are on their own, for everything. But they feel good about learning how to survive off the land and Ernt so far is doing ok- things just might turn around after all.
The darkness of the long winters in Alaska creeps in and so does the other side of Ernt. The drinking has not subsided and now as Lenie gets older, she is realizing the truth of what her father is, as well as all her mother has put up with, and continues to put up with. Not so much a child anymore Lenie is understanding that this might have been the worse decision they could have made, but this is also the only place that has ever felt like home.
This was such a good read! The author did an amazing job with visuals of Alaska, and its beauty- while capturing what life was like for those who came back from Vietnam and had to try and survive on their own, and integrate back into society. This was before PTSD was a thing, and when women still did not have much say when domestic violence was happening. A very interesting read about the 70’s.
Very good story — makes me want to visit Alaska — with one fatal flaw IMO. Cora tells Lenny that she is the great love of her life. But if Cora truly loved her daughter like that, she would have left Ernt long before things came to a head. You don’t put someone you love in danger like that.
Good book. Story line was believable, it held my interest all the way through.
I couldn’t put this book down; I read it in two days.
Oh if you have never read a book written by Kristin Hannah you have no idea what you are missing. Her books are so wonderfully written that every one of your emotions are going to be on high alert while reading this fantastic book. Just make sure you keep a box of tissues handy. Thank you Kristin for writing us another fantastic book!