4. The Great Alone

The Great Alone. Kristin Hannah. 2017.

​Although I did not know what I was getting into before I started, it didn't take long before I took a deep sigh and realized I'd gotten myself into a story about domestic violence.  As a general rule, I don't read fiction about intimate violence anymore.  I get enough of it at work and supporting people I care about who are navigating trauma. But this book, written by the author of one of my favorite reads, The Nightingale, refused to be put down.  Hannah's writing is so compelling and her characters so real.  I love that they are flawed and complicated, especially in this story of isolation in rural Alaska where it would be so easy to create one-dimensional tropes based on stereotypes.  

The early scenes of violence and, particularly, the ways in which the targets justify, excuse, and explain the abuse is shocking and painful because their voice is so consistent with what I have heard from survivors who blame themselves.  Several times, I almost stopped reading because it felt like the author believed those explanations, but it seemed like every time I was about to give up on it, there was a glimmer that the story was going deeper.  I am so glad I stuck it out to the end.  There is nothing sappy or sweet about this book, but it is powerful.  Even the ending, which is not predictable, felt right to me.  

This is a hard, but great read.  Highly recommend.

​Recommended by Stephanie.  Dodie tried to recommend it, too, but it was taken.

Next up: The Overstory, which has been recommended by several people, but never at a time when there was an opening, so I am really looking forward to it.

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