The Vaster Wilds

A Novel

By: Lauren Groff

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2023 Lauren Groff (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“I know of few other writers whose sentences are so beautiful and so propulsive. The girl embodies a furious onward motion, as does the prose.”—New York Times Book Review

“[A] thrilling historical adventure. . .the existential themes at the heart of Lauren Groff’s fifth novel—the rawness of life, the precious inner-workings of nature, the drive to continue on in the face of challenges—are as timely as they come.”—TIME

"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

Wow

Compelling and deeply moving story, beautifully performed. A true spiritual journey through wilderness told astonishingly in the voice and heart of a small “nothing” girl. Lauren Goff is a master storyteller and gifted writer.

White heat

This novel is my favorite of 2023. Masterful storytelling through the use of the omniscient narrator, electric prose. A dance. I felt led into the soreness and earth, up into the sky with soaring tension for a view of those nearby, and swept between colonies with researched precision and devout care. I was there - I feel infected and scabbed and like a few teeth just fell out. An epic protagonist taught me to spit in the fire for good luck - Girl? Woman? Mother? Daughter? Human? Mythic folk hero I’m taking with me. THANK YOU

Grateful for this book

Thanks to Lauren Groff for this wonderful contemplation and celebration of life. Grateful for her work.

Epic historical survival novel.

Beautiful pros and many contrasts between strength in survival and fear of failure. This should be your next “can’t put it down“ read! Groff Wright such wonderful descriptions, that you feel you are within her, around her, watching her throughout this book. Great descriptions of the intense will for survival in women, during the rule of the British with the common theme of abusive patriarchy, which still lingers in America.

Extraordinarily beautiful

The language is extraordinary, the story beautiful, and the telling worthy of both. Lauren Groff and January LaVoy together have created a masterpiece.

The language of beauty and suffering

The unflinching telling of the protagonist’s saga respects the reader. This book is a gift and a reminder of what is true about existing in our mortal bodies within and without human culture.

Captivating adventure

I finished this book in one day. It was a captivating survival adventure. It doesn't mute the harshness of peasant life, the struggle of unwanted children, or the weaponization of faith.

well done, but slightly revisionist

I liked this book and she writes shockingly well. I would note that I think she enjoys shocking you... and this is the 3rd book with a similar style--beautiful tight wording and then $hit thrown in for shock value. And I mean literally... she loves to describe the scatalogical in detail. It has become somewhat of her signature. Also, I found it improbable that the character would really express sympathy for indigenous people. so many historical fiction novels these days take that revisionist view... that somehow the main character knew better and did better than others of their time. I am not sure I buy that.

All that aside, the book is lovely and makes you think, and is a fresh new take on the pilgrim's journey.

Grueling and gruesome

I wanted to like this book bc it had received good reviews and the topic of pre-colonial wilderness sounded fascinating.
It was imo unnecessarily gruesome with the climax of the story (a flashback towards the end) outrageously so. The book could easily be categorized as horror (if it is not).

Very little about it was realistic in terms of survival or in terms of description of the wilderness that would have been encountered within a 50 mile radius of Jamestown (rocky landscape, waterfalls etc not realistic depictions of the coastal plain).

I may have missed that the point of the book was allegorical. By close to the end I was ready for it to be over.

Hopeless

I like books that have a theme of hope. Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities had much human tragedy in it, but it also had a strong thread of Hope woven throughout. Some may see a healthy perspective on life and the world we live in, but I didn’t come away with a good feeling.