Immortal North

By: Tom Stewart

Narrated by: Stephen L. Vernon

Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

For fans of Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway comes a debut novel that Book Sirens calls, "[h]eartbreakingly beautiful, raw and enchanting."

A father raises his boy in the isolated North. But for those lands and minds with an unsettled past, other dangers may lurk the woods where father and son hunt the timber.

He’s known as the trapper, and his family has a long history in these remote woods. Now it’s just him and the boy, and he’ll raise him in the world he knows—the forest, where threats take recognizable forms: harsh weather, peak predators, the encroachment of civilization at odds with their lifestyle. A tale told in captivating prose of wild living, where human skin is no boundary for either the beauty or cruelty of nature.

After the arrival of a foreign presence, the forest in all its naked majesty becomes an arena for the dueling forces of life: joy and suffering, good and evil, compassion and vengeance. One fateful day their woodland life is violently broken—shouldn’t those guilty of such injustice be held to account? Though the forest is isolated, this may be a story of the wilderness existing within us all.

©2023 Tom Stewart (P)2023 Tom Stewart

Critic reviews

“Immortal North is one of those classic works best savored slowly. I was so immersed in the wonders of the natural world and the mysteries of human love and existence that I wanted the story never to end. One of the finest examples of true literary fiction I have ever read.” (Marcus Lynn Dean, author of The Scream of an Eagle)

Heart-rending story. Performance warmed up.

It gutted me. Like slice me open, pull out my entrails, remove and tan my skin, and wear it like a cape gutted. This is part philosophy and part tragic story about the randomness of fate, the small flap of a butterfly's wing, the seemingly inconsequential choices of humans as they traverse the wild landscape of life. It's about our interconnectedness and our independence, the ways we live our lives for ourselves or for others. It's beautiful and thoughtful and brooding, and as you examine your intention and purpose in this life, it will pull you through the microscope and ensnare you. Tom Stewart has a reader for life.

3/13/23 UPDATE: I've just listened to Stewart's reading of his novel, and Audible recording that has since been replaced with a professional reader. This is my second reading of this novel, and my first review stands validated. I also really loved listening to this novel read by the author. While not a professional voice actor, his intensity of emotion was truly heartening, and I feel as if I've been inside the characters heads for real. I'll probably purchase the newly recorded Audible, as well. I need every copy. Now to read Immortal North Two!

3/26/23 UPDATE: After listening to the author's reading of his book, I immediately started the version recorded by Stephen L. Vernon. I'll say this for Mr. Vernon: He really brought the second half of this book to life for me, but I had to spend him up to 1.2. I had a really hard time with his reading of this wonderful book at the start. He pronounced a few words differently than I know them, so that threw me off, AND his reading at the start just didn't sound as authentic as Tom's reading. If I'd listened to this book the first time with him as the reader, I'd have stopped it and picked up the hard cover. That being said, he brought me to years in a way even the author did not near the end. 😭