by Pat Stadley
First published 1970
The woods grow quiet as another hunting season draws to a close. An aging hunter walks familiar trails, rifle in hand, knowing these may be among his final expeditions into the wilderness he has known since boyhood. The forest around him changes with each passing year, and so does he. His steady aim wavers now, his sure footing less certain on the leaf-strewn paths. The game grows scarce, or perhaps his patience grows thin. Each dawn in the blind becomes a meditation on time and mortality. The hunter must reckon with what it means to lay down the rifle, to surrender the annual ritual that has defined his autumns for decades. This is a story about endings and acceptance, about a man confronting the passage of time in the place that has always felt most like home.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, adventure, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, man-vs-nature
Setting: Forest, Wilderness
Period: Autumn
Hardcover · Random House