AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, TIME, ESQUIRE, VOGUE, LA TIMES, SLATE, HARPER'S BAZAAR and others

“Part historical, part horror, part breathless thriller, part wilderness survival tale, The Vaster Wilds is a story about the lengths to which we will go to stay alive."—NPR staff pick

“Lauren Groff just reinvented the adventure novel."—Los Angeles Times

“Glorious…surroundings come alive in prose that lives and breathes upon the page." —Boston Globe


A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive

A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves. - (Findaway World Llc)

Booklist Reviews

A young girl, perhaps in her late teens, has set out on her own in the wilds of America to escape a failing settlement that has become barbaric. Based in the 1600s on the first permanent English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, this story speaks to the colonialists not anticipating the harsh climate nor the Indigenous population that would fight to keep its land. As the girl suffers from hunger, cold, and run-ins from bears, wolves, and people, we learn her origin story and how she came to be fleeing the people of her own nation. Groff beautifully writes the horrors of eating grubs, of a lice-infested body and clothing, and of the filth inherent in living in the wilds. LaVoy expertly delivers this elegant and visceral text to the listener. Her steady and calming voice imbues the strength the girl finds in her escape and describes the horrors with such richness that you set aside the bodily disgust of the descriptions. LaVoy and Groff ingeniously partner to immerse the listener into the struggles and dread of the girl's journey. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.