other books by the author of the great alone

Matt and Leni are classmates, and they, too, begin to have romantic feelings for each other the story then takes a Romeo and Juliet turn. Meanwhile, Cora develops a not-so-hidden attraction to him, which makes Ernt even angrier. Because of Tom’s wealth, Ernt grows to resent him. They then meet Tom Walker, a rich landowner, and his son, Matt. When they arrive, they meet Large Marge, a former lawyer and now the owner of a local general store, who becomes their friend and guide to how to survive their first Alaskan winter. Desperate for a do-over, Ernt decides to move his family from Seattle to Alaska, hoping a change in scenery will suture the pieces of his spirit back together. Leni is caught in the middle of Ernt’s violent outbursts and Cora’s tears in their wake. Cora is desperate to have the man she married return, not the shell of him that the war spit back. Ernt is moody, violent, and unable to hold down a job. She is a thirteen-year-old dealing with her mother, Cora, a poster child for the 1970s hippie movement, and her father, Ernt, a former soldier who was a Prisoner of War in Vietnam. The story is told mainly from the point of view of Leni Allbright.

These themes include the fragility and strength of people’s character, the beauty and horror of the Alaskan forests, wild and tamed spirits that inhabit those wildernesses, and the love and hate we sometimes feel for those we cherish. The Great Aloneby Kristin Hannah explores contradiction, not in the sense of the quality of the book itself, but in the themes that permeate every page.

Other books by the author of the great alone