Wilderness: A Novel [B0014]

2012 HCDJ. Thirty years after the Civil War's Battle of the Wilderness left him maimed, Abel Truman has found his way to the edge of the continent, the rugged, majestic coast of Washington State, where he lives alone in a driftwood shack with his beloved dog. Wilderness is the story of Abel, now an old and ailing man, and his heroic final journey over the snowbound Olympic Mountains. It's a quest he has little hope of completing but still must undertake to settle matters of the heart that predate even the horrors of the war. Haunted by tragedy, loss, and unspeakable brutality, Abel has somehow managed to hold on to his humanity, finding way stations of kindness along his tortured and ultimately redemptive path. In its contrasts of light and dark, wild and tame, brutal and tender, and its attempts to reconcile a horrific war with the great evil it ended, Wilderness tells not only the moving tale of an unforgettable character, but a story about who we are as human beings, a people, and a nation. Lance Weller's immensely impressive debut immediately places him among our most talented writers.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "A masterpiece. An extremely powerful portrayal of the barbary of war, here the American Civil War but it could be any war on any continent. Stunning lyrical descriptions of the Pacific Northwest. An outstanding novel to be read for its hero Abel Truman, for its truth and for its beauty."; "Not at all what I was expecting. A riveting story, and incredibly poetic in prose. The descriptors were so raw, and full; I could almost smell what was described. This is my first time reading this author - I am astounded, and in love with this work."