Three-time National Book Award finalist Lauren Groff’s latest novel, “The Vaster Wilds,” is harrowing, riveting, and a must-read this fall.
After escaping a colonial settlement devastated by famine in Virginia, a teenage girl finds herself alone in the American wilderness, where she embarks on a physical and spiritual journey that will test everything she has ever known. The landscape is harsh and unforgiving, “all ablaze with ice, the world was on fire with ice.” She confronts the harsh realities of winter survival; her only tools are a flint and steel, raw intelligence, and relentless perseverance.
“She had chosen to flee, and in so choosing, she had left behind her everything she had, her roof, her home, her country, her language, the only family she had ever known, the child Bess, who had been born into her care when she was herself a small child of four years or so, her innocence, her understanding of who she was, her dreams of who she might one day be if only she could survive this starving time.” As the girl navigates this unknown terrain, she reflects on the hardships of her past roles in society, including her servitude, her gender, and her being an imposter in Native American land. These restrictions contrast with the simplicities of her life in the wild, where survival is her sole priority.
Groff masterfully weaves vivid imagery with memories of the girl’s journey from an English parish poorhouse to the home of a wealthy woman and her husband, her survival of the Black Death, and a trip across the Atlantic. Groff’s visceral details and breathtaking prose give readers a profound sensory experience. Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds” is a stunning historical novel and is sure to be one of the biggest books of the year– you won’t want to miss it.
“The Vaster Wilds” by Lauren Groff is out for release on September 12, 2023.
