The land is at the end of the road, past the silver gate with a cow skull and just before the burnt tree, at mile marker 13.

This state, this place, is like no other. It is beauty and horror; savior and destroyer. Here, where survival is a choice that must be made over and over, in the wildest place in America, on the edge of civilization, where water in all its forms can kill you, you learn who you are........You learn what you will do to survive. That lesson, that revelation, as my mother once told me about love, is Alaska's great and terrible gift. Those who come for beauty alone, or for some imaginary life, or those who seek safety, will fail. In the vast expanse of this unpredictable wilderness, you will either become your best self and flourish, or you will run away, screaming, from the dark and the cold and the hardship. There is no middle ground, no safe place; not here, in the Great Alone." We see from Leni’s perspective that Cora can be a bit of a flirt. Why do you think that was? What was she trying to get Ernt to prove to her?

Leni is hopeful when they first arrive in the small outpost of Kaneq. But as the days shorten and the sky darkens when winter appraches, Ernst’s temper and volatile impulses re-emerge. As Leni grows up, she and her mother must manage Ernst and the demons which haunt him. Book Review

Leni sat down beside him. He put an arm around her, pulled her in close. “The world is being run by lunatics. It’s not my America anymore. I want…” He didn’t finish, and Leni didn’t say anything. She was used to her dad’s sadness, his frustration. He stopped sentences halfway through all the time, as if he were afraid of giving voice to scary or depressing thoughts. Leni knew about that reticence and understood it; lots of times it was better to stay silent. Wait,” Leni said. Even for Dad, this was big. “Alaska? You want to move again? We just moved here.” Then Dad went off to Vietnam and got shot down and captured. Without him, Mama fell apart; that was when Leni first understood her mother’s fragility. They drifted for a while, she and Mama, moved from job to job and town to town until they finally found a home in a commune in Oregon. There, they tended beehives and made lavender sachets to sell at the farmers’ market and protested the war. Mama changed her personality just enough to fit in. It isn’t much. Forty acres with a cabin that needs fixing. But a hardworking man can live off the land up here, away from the crazies and the hippies and the mess in the lower Forty-eight. Think of it,” Dad said, lifted out of his seat by enthusiasm. “A house that’s ours. That we own. In a place where we can be self-sufficient, grow our vegetables, hunt our meat, and be free. We’ve dreamed of it for years, Cora. Living a simpler life away from all the bullshit down here. We could be free. Think of it.”McNary, Dave (February 5, 2018). "Sony Buys 'Nightingale' Author's Alaska Novel 'The Great Alone' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved March 13, 2021. Leni looked worriedly at Mama. Dad had never said this before. To hear the words now unsettled them.

As I read about this brave woman--and so many others like her, women who put their lives at risk to save Jewish children--I found myself consumed with a single overwhelming question, as relevant today as it was seventy years ago. When would I as, a wife and mother, risk my life and more importantly, my child’s life to save a stranger? That question is at the very heart of the The Nightingale. It is a question that haunts me still. Hannah had initially written a whole draft of a thriller with the same characters trying to solve a crime that had taken place in the past, [3] but during revisions only kept the 1970s Alaska setting; then started writing a first-person point-of-view novel from a teenage narrator. [2] Reception [ edit ] At school, Matthew is withdrawn. There is a school field trip where he shoves Leni away she tries to help him. Afterwards, Matthew tells her he is going to stay with his aunt, so he can see a shrink and be with his sister and get the help he needs. He leaves.As such, I found the initial setup of The Great Alone, which spans approximately the first half of the book, really well done. It’s evenly paced and delivers a steady stream of emotional ups and downs as the Allbrights navigate this new territory and their new lives. its books like this that remind me why reading is such a passionate and worthwhile constant in my life. i have come to rely on books to help me learn, grown, empathise, and sometimes escape. and this story did all of that. I thought Hannah did a good job with the topic, though ultimately it is largely about abuse, which I think is inherently a dark and (to put it lightly) “unpleasant” topic. It’s just something to be aware of going into the book that the story spends a substantial amount of time on that issue.