Black Woods, Blue Sky

Birdie, a 26-year-old single mother, ekes out a modest living as a waitress in Ivey’s (Last Days in Hunting Camp) heart-wrenching new book. Birdie loves her imaginative six-year-old daughter, Emaleen, and is determined to be there for her in ways her own absent mother was not, even as she yearns for a different, freer life. A new start seems possible when Arthur, a reclusive local man, rescues a lost Emaleen from the forest and starts spending more time around Birdie. Despite his strange and quiet ways, Arthur and Birdie fall in love. It isn’t long before the three move to Arthur’s cabin in the remote Alaskan wilderness. What Birdie and Emaleen don’t know is that Arthur isn’t always human. He loves them both, but he might be the greatest danger to them in the woods. The novel expertly captures the duality of the Alaskan wilderness as unpredictable and perilous but beautiful and liberating too. By balancing tense, painful moments with gentle, hopeful ones, the narrative stays balanced.