Join a book club that is reading The Great Alone: A Novel!
The Great Alone: A Novel
#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller
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.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
Not going to lie, I may have been close to tears at points toward the end of this story. Definitely would recommend. Going to Alaska is now on my bucket list.
I'd give this a 3.5 if it were an option. . . I found it mostly compelling, but like many of this author's novels, overwritten (by a lot) and often melodramatic.
The author clearly loves Alaska and its natural, rugged beauty, as well as the people who "rough it" by living in its outer regions. But it was hard to believe that Cora, the young wife and mother who had been raised in affluence and even during the first years of her marriage lived a city life, was suddenly making her own sourdough starters, gutting and smoking fish for the winter, and canning preserves as if she'd been doing it all her life.
Cora's tumultuous marriage to Ernt (that name was so jarring every time I read it: why did she pick such a weird name?) becomes a focal point of the story, as well as its impact on their young daughter, Leni, who learns to love the wilds of Alaska while trying to simply survive the emotional volatility of her abusive father.
The book is unevenly paced. A great deal happens in the last 100 pages that either deserved a fuller treatment or would have seemed more balanced had the first 300+ pages been trimmed, as they could easily have been. Also, elements of the final resolution of the drama felt extremely unlikely.
The author clearly loves Alaska and its natural, rugged beauty, as well as the people who "rough it" by living in its outer regions. But it was hard to believe that Cora, the young wife and mother who had been raised in affluence and even during the first years of her marriage lived a city life, was suddenly making her own sourdough starters, gutting and smoking fish for the winter, and canning preserves as if she'd been doing it all her life.
Cora's tumultuous marriage to Ernt (that name was so jarring every time I read it: why did she pick such a weird name?) becomes a focal point of the story, as well as its impact on their young daughter, Leni, who learns to love the wilds of Alaska while trying to simply survive the emotional volatility of her abusive father.
The book is unevenly paced. A great deal happens in the last 100 pages that either deserved a fuller treatment or would have seemed more balanced had the first 300+ pages been trimmed, as they could easily have been. Also, elements of the final resolution of the drama felt extremely unlikely.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.