"It was otherworldly somehow, magical in its vast expanse. An incomparable
Although I have been a great fan of award winning Kristin Hannah's twenty-plus novels over many years, I hesitated to pick this one up. Alaska has been pretty far down on my bucket list travels, and the Covid pandemic gave me enough stress and sadness without voluntarily picking up a book about abuse, PTSD and estranged families. Nevertheless, a good friend had this comment: "It was the first book in a long time that kept me awake into the night and where I cried real tears at several points." So I took the plunge.
The ever-moving Allbright family pile into their VW bus in 1974, heading to Alaska, which had become America's 49th state in 1959. Dad Ernt believes another new start in an isolated wild place will make his demons recede: "Dad wanted a new beginning. Needed it. And Mama needed him to be happy. So they would try again in a new place, hoping geography would be the answer. They would go to Alaska in search of this new dream. Leni would do as she was asked and do it with a good attitude. She would be the new girl in school again. Because that was what love was." This quote from the first chapter becomes the repetitious mantra of the Allbright family. Perhaps this is the part of the book that was the most difficult for me because Ernt doesn't change, Mom Cora continues to make excuses for his behavior and daughter Leni has a distorted perception of love. I just wanted someone to step up and be a responsible adult before tragedy struck...but the reality in dysfunctional families is that healing from these cycles takes a long time.
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