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Walking Home: A Journey in the Alaskan Wilderness Hardcover – January 1, 2010

by Lynn Schooler (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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In the spring of 2007, hard on the heels of the worst winter in the history of Juneau, Alaska, Lynn Schooler finds himself facing the far side of middle age and exhausted by labouring to handcraft a home as his marriage slips away. Seeking solace and escape in nature, he sets out on a solo journey into the Alaskan wilderness, travelling first by small boat across the formidable Gulf of Alaska, then on foot along one of the wildest coastlines in North America. Walking Home is filled with stunning observations of the natural world, and rife with nail-biting adventure as Schooler fords swollen rivers and eludes aggressive grizzlies. But more important, it is a story about finding wholeness-and a sense of humanity-in the wild. His is a solitary journey, but Schooler is never alone; human stories people the landscape-tales of trappers, explorers, marooned sailors, and hermits, as well as the mythology of the region's Tlingit Indians. Alone in the middle of several thousand square miles of wilderness, Schooler conjures the souls of travellers past to learn how the trials of life may be better borne with the help and community of others. In Walking Home Schooler creates a conversation between the human and the natural, the past and present, and investigates, with elegance and soul, what it means to be a part of the flow of human history.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    262 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    7.99 x 10 x 1.85 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    140881028X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1408810286
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is the best wilderness narrative I've read for a long time. The tension between nature at its most exquisite and most lethal makes this the story of our times. A remarkable book' Nicholas Crane, TV presenter and author of Coast 'Walking Home is an invitation to get lost in a book. It travels a line around the Alaskan landscape, but creates a much more meandering and delightful dance through history, culture, autobiography and natural history in its recounting of this odyssey. I'm glad I got to wander in it' Rebecca Solnit, author of Wanderlust Praise for The Blue Bear: 'The Blue Bear is sublime. [Schooler] threads us into the intimacy of Alaska's nature... Leads...us where we have never been before' New York Times Book Review 'Thrilling treatments of travel have become commonplace, but first-rate portraits of friendship are hard to find' Washington Post --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Lynn Schooler is the critically acclaimed author of The Blue Bear and The Last Shot. He has lived in Alaska for almost forty years, working as a commercial fisherman, shipwright, wilderness guide, and an award-winning wildlife photographer. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (January 1, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 262 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 140881028X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1408810286
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.99 x 10 x 1.85 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

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Lynn Schooler

Lynn Schooler

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
43 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

PH
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2014
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This book, the second I've read by Lynn Schooler - the first was The Blue Bear - such a fine book, was a delight to read. It was my reading companion during a month long trip and I enjoyed every minute I spent with it.
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Josh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2017
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an engaging story...
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Edgelooker
5.0 out of 5 stars Alaska: A Personal Quest
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2016
Great story. A firsthand account of travels through remote Alaska. A journey through personal life challenges that are paralleled with challenges in nature. The author finds through his travels, a new found discovery of himself and the strength to carry on. His personal observations are told vividly in prose and descriptive so the reader is engaged in the story. Great read!
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Debra Maatman-Fink
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal journey
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2013
Well written. I appreciate the history told in the story. It gave the book a broader spectrum of interest and laid the ground work for telling of the ruggedness of the land. We are one yet all part of a bigger picture. I plan on reading this again.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

GARRY GERMON
4.0 out of 5 stars I would recommend this book to anyone interested in adventure travel, learning about the natural environment and just a well written story.
Reviewed in Australia on April 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
I liked the author’s use of local history, descriptions of wildlife and landscape to add context to his adventure to circumnavigate Mt Fairweather. This book had me captured from the first chapter. The chase by the bear was frightening and you could feel the authors fear in the story.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in adventure travel, learning about the natural environment and just a well written story.
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BarryB
5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you B.B.C
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2010
Verified Purchase
But for the serialisation of this book, I would not have come across it. I heard one episode in a read abridged version and just had to get the book. I was certainly rewarded well. A fine narrative describing an Alaskan adventure; taking the reader into situations that are real and dangerous. Who needs fiction when modern explorers write so grippingly of actual events. Lynn Schooler also manages to give us an insight into his own character balanced perfectly with the adventure itself.
7 people found this helpful
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Mrs Patricia A Peppiatt
4.0 out of 5 stars The author goes into a lot of detailed background information but it is a good read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2015
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A man leaves behind his unhappy past, as he struggles with the challenges of a journey in wild Alaska. You feel you are with him every step of the way, whether it is the unpredictable sea crossing with giant waves, crossing the river with ice floes, or encountering a bear which is tracking him down. The author goes into a lot of detailed background information but it is a good read.
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Eric
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2015
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excellent service, price, and delivewry
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Noel
3.0 out of 5 stars Introspection in the great outdoors
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2011
Verified Purchase
I read a newspaper review of this book and the publishers blurb. It seemed to be my type of book and it was a reasonable read. The title of the book is 'Walking Home' but I think that title is perhaps less about the physical walk and more about the psychological walk. I was half-way through the book before the author began his Alaskan walk. The first half of the book is spent setting the scene, telling us the history of the area and also bemoaning the intimations of mortality triggered by deaths of friends and acquaintances, and the apparent death of the author's brief and recent marriage.

Eventually Lynn Schooler sails out of Juneau bound for Lituya Bay the jumping off point for his walk on the wild side. He has a great knowledge of the birds, animals and plants of the Alaskan Spring and shares that interwoven with the history of its native peoples and those travellers of European extraction who passed by and through it over the past 300 years. The vast devastation of the great tsunamis in the Bay; the shipwrecks; the prospectors and even a modern-day hermit on an island. The tales of what they did linger on but there is little physical remembrance of them, the earth has reclaimed all of that.

Mr Schooler lays his soul bare and throughout the book he engages in painful self examination. He does not always like what he sees when soul-searching. At times I felt like giving him a shake and saying 'snap out of it this is getting depressing'. (Almost to the point of self-pity) It all goes to build up the sense of foreboding and looming disaster which threads through the story line. Then suddenly in the final 30 pages or so the book and narrative change gear as he encounters a grizzly bear which does not run away but instead has designs to eat him. Man and beast, hunter and hunted, but with the normal roles reversed. When at real risk of death he is at his most vibrant and full of life. It is a thrilling piece of writing and contrasts with the rest of the book. He remarks on the contrast himself. I know that we cannot expect every day to be enlivened by a life threatening bear but it might have done him and the reader a little bit of good to encounter at least one other prospective man-eater along the way.
8 people found this helpful
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