The Great Alone

Title: The Great Alone

Author: Kristin Hannah

Genre: Historical Fiction,

Publisher: St. Martins Griffin

Source: Library

My Review:

This was my second time reading The Great Alone. I do not normally reread a book, but this one was for my book club, and it had been long enough that I didn't remember most of it.

I enjoyed the book but not as much as I did the first time I read it. I will not change my rating, I know over time our reading interests change.

While the book is over 500 pages, it is a quick read. It is well-written and gripping, and the setting is vivid and engrossing. While the book should have a depressing feel about it because of some of the content, it doesn't. 

This is a story of family, struggles, community, finding yourself, resilience, and hope.

Trigger warning; physical and emotional abuse.

As I typically read "clean" reads I want to say this book does have unnecessary profanity in it, but not so much that you can't enjoy the story.

Original rating: ★★★★★/5

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they 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 Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. 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. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.