The best domestic suspense novelists deliver on two counts: Their plots portray complex, relatable families, and their characters face outsize threats that feel urgent and real. Kristin Hannah, who mastered this
one-two punch in 2015's
The Nightingale, again nails the nail-biter in
The
Great Alone, a haunting tale that penetrates human behavior's darkest corners,
exploring post-traumatic stress disorder and spousal abuse, all made more
terrifying by its wilderness setting.
It's
1974. Leni is the 13-year-old daughter of Ernt Allbright, a fraying ex-POW, and
Cora, the battered wife who feels helpless to leave him. Since his return from
Vietnam, the three have wandered from place to place, hostages to the patriarch's
instability, until he receives word that a slain army buddy has left him land
in remote Kaneq, Alaska. Ernt sees this as a chance for a new start, though
Cora and Leni sense that the move will accelerate his unraveling—which it
does. As the violence between her parents escalates, Leni feels a primal urge
to disentangle before "this toxic dance of theirs" further unhinges
her. Yet Leni can't abandon her mother, even after her boyfriend, Matthew,
offers an escape.
Hannah
adeptly weaves in the bizarre headlines of the time, among them serial killers
and Watergate, to further underscore the chaos of Leni's world. But it's the
connections forged in a beautiful, harsh terrain—with Matthew and other locals,
between mother and child—that make this family saga soar.
