The Vaster Wilds

Groff's story is beautifully written and heart-breakingly realistic. She took a familiar historical event and depicted it in a new way.

Unlike anything I've read before. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking. Beautiful writing.

I listened to this book with increasing amazement, chapter after chapter of beautiful prose and a compelling story. More and more, I began to understand what being an animal in the wild might feel like, particularly the vulnerable state of being frightened, cold, hungry, ill, and desperate to survive.

I have lived some forty years in rural New Mexico, and my own observations confirm that life can be hard for any wild animal—violent and short. To see this told from the perspective of a young girl was breathtaking. I loved this character, with her innate spirituality and growing understanding of… show more.

At times, Groff's book's pace and intensity left me gasping for air, but at others, I was comforted and lulled by its achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world as seen through the eyes of its central character, a young woman known simply as “the girl.” 

Leaving behind famine, disease, and indentured servitude at a colonial settlement modeled on Jamestown, the girl escapes into what was then a dangerous and vast wilderness only to discover that while she may now be free, she is still a slave to the forces of Nature. 

Visceral, dark, and transcendent, it’s a compelling book… show more.

I write and tend to read stories about contemporary relationships. Lauren Groff has recently written a fiction set long ago about women who face extraordinary challenges, in this case, the survival of a runaway servant, c 1609.

It is a literary action adventure of a sort with profound meaning. She grounds her stories in the landscape, while I ground mine in the culture.

I love the contrast. She inspires me. Her descriptive prose is spectacular in detail, and I was swept along, spellbound, on this arduous journey as if I were there, rooting for the runaway, even knowing the odds… show more.

This historical novel is set in 17th century Colonial America, and the main character is a runaway servant girl who flees into the forest from the Jamestown settlement where people are dying of disease and famine.

I was stunned by Groff’s ability to put herself inside the mind and body of her sole character, and to imagine with incredible detail the young woman’s experiences in the wild, some of them horrific and some transcendent. The actual historical event at Jamestown that inspired the book was a revelation to me.

This book is a lyrical and beautifully raw tale of a young woman's survival in colonial America.

I loved the historical details, but at the same time, its fable-like quality made it timeless. As an endurance athlete, I enjoyed the young heroine's stamina, sweat, and fortitude.