Paperback, 224 pages
Published 2020 by Bellevue Literary Press.
In an Eden-like future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They own a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches his daughter how to fish and hunt and the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can learn to listen. A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion.
I was having trouble with this at first. But now I think it's beautiful. I love that it's not one of those stories of how cruel nature is and how much you have to defend yourself against it. It's a story of how this girl's surroundings really, really want to see her alive and well, and help as much as they can to get her through a hard winter.
