The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah is almost as sprawling as the setting in Alaska.
cover blurb It's 1974 and the Allbrights are a family in crisis. They are alone, living off the grid, in a harsh and unforgiving wilderness.
Ernt is volatile ever since his return from Vietnam. He can't hold a mechanic's job, distrusts America, and is impulsive. Cora loves her husband madly, deeply and will follow him anywhere. Leni, age thirteen, is caught in the middle.
Now - Alaska. That's going to be the answer for their lives. Ernt is convinced they can make a new life in this wild free land on property given to him by a Vietnam buddy who didn't make it back. The three months of summer seem promising. But alas, darkness and winter comes and stays and stays. The peril from wild animals - some outside, some in your own home.
Kristen Hannah explores human frailty and resistance. Her story will chill you as you watch Leni grow into her destiny as a kid in 1974 to a young woman with a baby in 1986. Alaska is wild and wonderful in this well written family saga.
