by Molly Gloss
First published 1999
Lydia Sanderson stands at the edge of her homestead claim in Oregon's Blue Mountains, facing another brutal winter without her husband. The isolation weighs on her as heavily as the snow that will soon trap her in the cabin she built with her own hands. Every day brings new challenges that test her resolve: wolves threatening her livestock, dwindling supplies, and the constant knowledge that her nearest neighbors are miles away across treacherous terrain. The mountains show no mercy to those who cannot adapt to their demands. Lydia must learn to read the weather, hunt for food, and repair what breaks before it can kill her. As the seasons turn, she discovers that surviving in this unforgiving landscape requires more than physical strength. It demands a fundamental transformation of who she thought she was and what she believed herself capable of enduring.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, american, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, survival
Setting: Oregon, Blue Mountains
Period: 19th-Century
186 pages · Paperback · Mariner Books