Lauren Groff’s recently published book The Vaster Wilds is a new kind of adventure novel that follows a young woman’s escape into the wilderness of early 1600s America. The novel begins quite breathlessly—and maintains the same pace throughout—with a servant girl running away from her disease-ridden, failing community of Jamestown, Virginia. Armed with little more than a knife, a flint, and some stolen boots, the girl knows she is ill-prepared for the unforgiving nature that awaits her, yet flees anyway for a chance at freedom. From then on, in raw, realistic, riveting detail, we watch her survive; she teaches herself how to make a fire, capture food, fashion makeshift shelters, and evade predators through trial and error, walking a fine line between life and death each day. As she contends with nature, the girl begins to question all that she’s been taught growing up in England and the American colonies about religion, humanity, and her own self-worth, and comes to develop a sense of awe for her tiny, meaningful existence in this vast world.

Because The Vaster Wilds doesn’t have a traditional plot or traditional dialogue—the majority of the novel is just the girl, alone, in nature—it’s easy to assume the reading experience will be too slow or esoteric to enjoy; and yet, this book has all the readability of a thriller. I was rapt from the jump, fully invested in each moment with the girl, needing to know if and how she would survive. Groff paints an unfiltered picture with descriptions of how the girl’s bodily functions suffer without adequate food, heat, and rest (Groff also avoids providing any convenient saviors), and the realism of it all made it easy to imagine myself in her situation, to wonder if I would make similar choices. Most of the other survival stories I’ve read center around a male protagonist, so it was revelatory to watch a young woman undergo the experience. Also, I was endlessly impressed by how Groff makes a novel set in 1610 feel so current; with her stunning descriptions of the natural world and the overarching theme of survival in an unforgiving climate, the book speaks directly to our planet’s current predicament. The Vaster Wilds is a beautiful work of fiction, and I absolutely loved it.

I’d recommend this book to…

• Anyone who loves a high-stakes survival story… it’s similar in theme to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen or the movie Cast Away
• Anyone in the mood for historical fiction that looks at the world from a lesser-known vantage point… it’s similar in style to Hamnetby Maggie O’Farrell
• Anyone looking for something searing and honest… it’s similar in tone to Booth by Karen Joy Fowler