In Wilderness

March 2, 2015
Thomas (The Year the Music Changed) writes hauntingly of obsession and survival in this dark, unusual love story set in the 1960s. Ad exec Katherine Reid, after contracting a mysterious and seemingly terminal illness, leaves her old life behind and moves into a mountain cabin with a sleeping bag, a few personal items, and a gun, determined to live what's left of her life in solitude. However, she doesn't count on meeting Danny, a young Vietnam vet and former college student who comes back from his time in combat irreparably damaged, and suffering from what today would be diagnosed as severe post-traumatic stress. Danny, who lives in an abandoned house nearby, rapidly becomes dangerously obsessed with Katherine, who at first is not sure what to make of the young man who appears in her front yard one day. As the two interact, passion quickly flaresâbut it could have deadly consequences. As the author moves her characters through the seasons of 1966, 1967, and 1968, she offers a deep and unforgettable look into how tragedy and madness can shape lives. Written from the points of view of two suffering people, the story takes on an almost surreal, lyrical quality. Riveting and raw.

February 15, 2015

It's 1966, and Katherine has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She leaves her secure advertising firm and buys a remote cabin in the Adirondacks in which to live out her final months. But her new self-reliance draws out unexpected reserves, and instead of dying, she seems to be getting better. Then, into her peaceful isolation comes Danny, a troubled Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who has been observing her since her arrival from his vantage point in a ramshackle mansion up the mountain. Their eventual meeting is explosive, leading to an obsessive sexual relationship despite their age difference, one in which the tension continues to grow toward an unavoidable conclusion. Their passionate relationship reveals the human longing for connection even in the direst circumstances. Thomas (The Year the Music Changed) writes with richness, describing the natural world as viscerally as she does the interior lives of these two intense characters. The wilderness around them is shaped by their perceptions, even as it holds out the promise of healing. VERDICT Recommended for readers who also like the raw, honest writing of Amy Bloom or Amanda Coplin.--Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015
Katherine Reid is a successful advertising executive who has been diagnosed with an unexplained terminal illness. She decides to chuck her high-level career and spend her final days alone in an isolated cabin. With only the bare essentials, Katherine moves to her cabin in the Appalachian Mountains to await the end of her life. But the anticipated end doesn't come. Both the solitude and the simple lifestyle are healing resources. As her condition improves, she experiences a renewed zest for living. It turns out she is not alone on the mountain. Twenty-year-old army veteran Danny Maclean lives nearby in an abandoned house. Danny has his own demons, including a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. When the two finally meet, they begin a passionate, volatile affair that will change their lives forever. Thomas (The Year the Music Changed, 2005) has written a gripping novel powered by genuine suspense and driven forward by two characters whose lives readers cannot look away from. A memorable story of an isolated, beautiful place and of two people trying to make sense of the world they have chosen to live in.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)