Eowyn Ivey's poignant third novel, Black Woods, Blue Sky, is a moving, sometimes heartbreaking meditation on nature, wildness, motherhood, and whether deep love can change someone. Ivey returns to her native Alaska to tell an intimate story set at the edge of the wilderness, against the immense backdrop of the tundra and its unforgiving beauty.
Ivey (The Snow Child; To the Bright Edge of the World) centers her narrative on Birdie, a young single mother fed up with her dead-end waitressing job at the Wolverine Lodge. She adores her daughter, six-year-old Emaleen, and is managing to keep them both fed, but Birdie longs for more: physical and emotional freedom beyond the confines of the lodge, and a chance to let go of the strains of daily life.
When Emaleen wanders off into the woods one day, Arthur Neilsen, a towering, soft-spoken loner, brings her back and captures Birdie's attention in a new way. Before long, Birdie and Emaleen have moved out to Arthur's cabin far up in the mountains, accessible only by plane; Birdie is totally absorbed in the joy of living so close to wilderness. Ivey's descriptions bring the tundra to life, immersing readers in its details such as the sweeping vistas sometimes obscured by sudden, thick fog. But Arthur's true nature may be different than it seems--and Birdie's love for him may not be enough to combat the shadows that lurk just beyond her sight.
Quietly suspenseful, laced with beauty and shot through with darkness, Black Woods, Blue Sky explores the nature of courage, the limits of love, and what happens when nature and civilization collide. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams