The Great Alone

Kristin Hannah

10 January 2019
9781447286035
448 pages

Synopsis

Set against the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, from the bestselling author of The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah.

The New York Times number one bestseller.

A woman has to be tough as steel up here. You can’t count on anyone to save you and your children. You have to be willing to save yourselves.

Thirteen-year-old Leni is coming of age in a tumultuous time. Caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, she dares to hope that Alaska will lead to a better future for her family, and a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

As Leni grows up in the shadow of her parents’ increasingly volatile marriage, she meets Matthew. And Matthew – thoughtful, kind, brave – makes her believe in the possibility of a better life . . .

With her trademark combination of elegant prose and deeply drawn characters, Kristin Hannah celebrates the remarkable and enduring strength of women.

'A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival, as epic as the Alaskan landscape it so vividly describes' - Kate Morton, author of The House at Riverton

‘A masterclass’ - Karen Swan, author of
The Spanish Promise.

A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival, as epic as the Alaskan landscape it so vividly describes
I didn’t just love this book, I became obsessed with it [. . .] The characters were flawed and vulnerable, strong and naïve, and Hannah has delivered a masterclass in all the different ways love can both save us and destroy us. She is an absolutely lyrical writer [. . . ] she perfectly captures and evokes the majesty and splendid isolation of Alaska and it feels a privilege to have journeyed there with her. This is a story that will stay with me for a long, long time.
Epic . . . By the end, I was surrounded by snow drifts of tissues damp with my tears