"I'll be honest, this isn't my favourite Freida book. It was an easy page turning read, with not a lot of depth to it. I feel as though it doesn't compare to the books that originally made Freida my all-time favourite author.

That being said; I did enjoy the book, I read it over the course of three days, and I had to keep reading because I HAD to find out what happened next. I would recommend the book as an easy pass time read."

"This book was so very hard to read. The year is 1974 and Ernt Allbright, his wife Cora, and thirteen year old daughter Leni, head to Alaska to make a new start. Ernt is a former POW, with nightmares, psychosis, and anger issues and when he's at his worst he is beating his wife to a pulp, too many times to count. Cora seems to think anytime that Ernt hurts her that it's her fault and doesn't seem to have it in her to realize that her daughter needs to be protected from Ernt, his crazy ideas, and his violent ways.

All of Ernt's troubles are worse during the shorter days of winter and his problems are magnified by the even shorter days of Alaska, in the winter. The family is in no way prepared for the hardships they will face on the remote property that an army buddy left to Ernt. Still, the hardy people that live in that area know everyone must work together to survive this wilderness and they are willing to help Ernt and his family, if only Ernt will accept help. But Ernt wants no help even though he desperately needs it, for his mental illness problems, for surviving the Alaskan wilderness, for his inability to get along with others.

Really this book is about Leni and how she survives life with a mentally ill father and a mother who is incapable of protecting her child from domestic violence. Cora "could" protect her child if she wanted to do so but Cora is damaged too and won't put her child ahead of the wants of Ernt. Alaska is a character in this book, along with the interesting townsfolk and neighbors. Leni finds and loses love thanks to her father and the story tells her struggles through the years. Once she is away from Alaska it never leaves her mind and it's clear that it will always be a part of her.

"

"4.5 stars

The author is a skillful storyteller, and this was fantastic. I loved every minute of it, and despite it being a fairly long novel my attention never wavered.

It’s the early 70’s and we follow the Albright family to Alaska. Ernt, the dad, is a Vietnam vet, a former POW who suffers from the effects of PTSD. He drinks. He can’t hold a job. He has a hair-trigger temper. The move to AK promises to be a fresh start for him, his wife Cora, and daughter Leni.

Alaska is a primitive place, “The Great Alone�, and the family is woefully unprepared. They arrive to find their cabin lacking modern conveniences, and they lack the skills and knowledge to prepare for the long winter season, which is rapidly approaching.

The author does a great job capturing the brutal conditions. It’s an unforgiving place, where even a simple mistake can cost you your life. Alaska is a character in the story and I particularly enjoyed this aspect of the novel. The beauty, isolation, and grandeur is captured perfectly, but family relationships and dynamics are the main focus of this novel.

Luckily for the Albrights, they get help and friendship from a cast of colorful characters that inhabit the town: Large Marge, Mad Earl, Mr. Walker, and others. Everyone there used to be something or someone else: a cop, a Pan Am captain, a university professor, a prosecutor� "Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now." "Any life that could be imagined could be lived up here." There are varying reasons why someone would choose to live off the grid in an area that has its own set of rules.  

The brutal winter isn’t the only darkness this family faces. A tragedy occurs which changes all of their lives. The last half of the book deals with the aftermath. The author doesn’t sugar coat any of it, and the issues this family and community faced would be challenging under the best of conditions. Not everyone within these pages is a sympathetic character, and more than once I would have liked to have reached through the pages to shake some sense into a couple of them. They may be frustrating but they are, sadly, probably accurately drawn. (I’m being deliberately vague so as to not post spoilers.)

This is a long book, covering decades, so there are necessary large jumps in time. There are tragedies, secrets, love, death, loss, joy…it’s a book with a lot of heart even if some things were a bit predictable and unrealistic, with too much drama thrown in at the end. It still didn’t stop me from loving the book.

The ultimate message is the truism often repeated: “no matter where you go, there you are�. You can’t escape yourself, and your demons will follow you wherever you go. Love isn’t always an easy path, whether it’s parental or romantic love, and life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect.

Trigger Warning: domestic abuse

I read this with the traveling sisters reading group and as always, they make the experience better. You can find the sisters blog at:


*Thank you to Netgalley, St Martin’s Press, and Kristin Hannah for providing me with a copy of the book for review."