by Lauren Groff
First published 2023
A servant girl breaks free from her colonial settlement and plunges into the unknown wilderness. She takes only basic supplies, her quick thinking, and an inner fire she believes comes from god. The wild land reveals truths that challenge everything her civilization taught her about survival, faith, and what it means to be human. As she struggles against hunger, cold, and danger, she must shed old beliefs to forge a new way of living. The girl's journey becomes a fight not just for her life, but for her soul. Groff places this solitary figure at a turning point in American history, where the collision between European colonialism and the natural world forces impossible choices. The story asks whether we can change fast enough to save ourselves when everything familiar falls away.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, adventure
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, survival
Setting: America
Period: 19th-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Riverhead Books