We Went to the Woods

May 1, 2019
Five young people set up an idealistic living experiment in upstate New York in this tantalizingly mysterious second novel by the author of Dead Letters (2017). Mack, the narrator, has good reason for heading off the grid with four attractive semistrangers. A former Ph.D. candidate in anthropology, she has been thrown out of her program after a scandal involving a reality TV show, and her middle-class parents are getting tired of her bumming around their house in Ithaca. So when she meets wealthy Louisa while helping to cater a party for a local land trust and Louisa introduces her to charming Beau, sweet Chloe, and enthusiastic Jack, Mack jumps on the chance to join them in setting up a homestead on an abandoned farm owned by Louisa's family. Despite the fact that it's winter, and regardless of the lack of winter plumbing, they eagerly move in to their respective cabins on the farm and start making plans for planting crops and raising chickens and regularly swapping beds. Their lives become complicated as they interact with the residents of the more organized and far more radical commune next door, led by the charismatic Matthew, who spends his time journeying among a network of collectives he has established. Mack--observant, curious, and apt to leap to unwarranted conclusions--makes a likable and understandably unreliable narrator. While the characters are not as well-differentiated as they might be, the setting, traced through a year of seasons, is richly realized, with believable details about the difficulties of farming with little resources and less knowledge. Dolan-Leach grounds the contemporary story in references to earlier American attempts to "go to the woods" by Thoreau and the many founders of intentional communities in the area in which this one is located, though her attempt to integrate passages from the diary of a fictional resident of one such community into the novel fizzles out. Equal parts slow-burning thriller and intelligent analysis of the pros and cons of intentional communities, the novel will appeal to those who would rather read about such endeavors from a safe distance than be immersed in their messy reality.

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May 20, 2019
A group of 20-somethings attempt to create their own utopia in Dolan-Leach’s emotionally satisfying but crowded sophomore novel (after Dead Letters). Mack slinks home to the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York after a disastrous stint on a reality show. While aimlessly working as a caterer in early 2016, she meets wealthy, captivating Louisa, who introduces her to mysterious, charming Beau; cold Chloe; and carefree Jack. The quartet recruits her to join them in an experimental anticapitalist subsistence community living on land owned by Louisa’s indulgent father. Mack relishes the physical labor but simmers with jealousy over Beau’s relationships with Louisa and Chloe. After finding a 19th-century journal written by the founder of an Oneida Community spin-off, Mack begins to see troubling similarities between her group’s messy sexual relationships and fervor and the area’s earlier inhabitants. As an indignant Louisa launches a lawsuit against the nonorganic agribusiness farmers next door and Beau frequently and unexpectedly slips away to visit the better organized, older collective nearby, Mack combines eavesdropping, research, and anthropological examination to understand what exactly it is she has joined. Mack’s stoic exterior and sharp observations provide ballast as the secrets multiply and story lines careen toward an untidy conclusion. Readers who enjoy teeming stories with political bite will be pleased. Agent: Amelia Atlas, ICM Partners.

June 1, 2019
Dolan-Leach follows her debut, Dead Letters (2017), with the story of five twentysomethings who, like Thoreau before them, seek out a simpler existence by attempting to live off the land in upstate New York. Narrator Mack, whose stint on a reality show has made her a pariah, meets fiery Louisa at a charity event and is intrigued by her circle of friends and their plan to retreat from society and homestead. Handsome, enigmatic Beau immediately enchants Mack, but she's also drawn to fragile Chloe and pragmatic Jack. The five move into cabins on land owned by Louisa's father, and romantic entanglements ensue, with Mack watching longingly as Beau flits between Louisa and Chloe. Louisa is bothered by Beau's involvement with members of the Collective, a nearby group with problematic origins, as well as by a neighbor encroaching on their land. Louisa and Beau grow more militant, threatening the survival of the entire group. Dolan-Leach has crafted a compelling tale about the passions and folly of young people trying to carve out meaning and purpose in their lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)