Novel Journeys: Wilderness Fiction That Transports and Transforms

Two-time National Book Award Finalist (Fates & Furies and Matrix) and B&N Book Club pick (Matrix) Lauren Groff delivers a fresh new take on the classic survival story, and it is a gorgeous sprint of a novel. This breathless story reveals the abject terror and absolute beauty of our natural world. Don’t be surprised if you lose yourself in the wild of the pages.  

Trek to the Klondike when you pick up The Prospectors, an expansive story of one family’s fight for gold — and their legacy. From the icy Canadian wilderness to California at the start of the 20^th Century, this novel questions one family’s ambition, greed and loyalties as the effects of the Yukon Gold Rush ripple across generations. Pick up our exclusive edition for a unique jacket and endpapers, an author essay about how her own family inspired the book and a helpful reading group guide.  

Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, C Pam Zhang’s debut is a fierce and haunting story about two siblings fleeing a mining town after the death of their father. An exhilarating adventure following the two as they grieve and try to survive their journey across unforgiving terrain, this haunting tale of time and memory, identity and home is an indelible novel. For another story of survival in a challenging world, don’t miss C Pam Zhang’s latest book, Land of Milk and Honey. 

Debra Magpie Earling (award-winning author of Perma Red) reimagines the story of Sacajewea in a moving tale of perseverance. From her childhood in her village to her time as a teenager with a newborn crossing dangerous terrain, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is a lyrical work of art that will change the way we see the historical record and the opening of the American West. 

America Fantastica is Tim O’Brien’s first novel in two decades, and this absurd yet poignant story is a must-read. A bank robbery sets the robber and one of the bank’s tellers on a journey that bounces around North America. From Mexico to a lakefront stay in Minnesota in the winter, it seems like everyone except the police are on their tail in this satirical novel about a life built on lies.   

This wildly inventive, big-hearted novel from Pulitzer Prize Finalist Daniel Mason travels through American history via the inhabitants of one small cabin in the New England woods as they face the world around them in all its wonder and mystery. Daniel Mason joins us on our Poured Over podcast this month to talk about North Woods and how our environment and history connect us all.  

Louise Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for this epic novel inspired by her grandfather’s life. Whether you’re new to Erdrich’s work, or revisiting a beloved favorite, don’t miss this vibrant novel full of memorable characters fighting to save their community in the 1950s. 

The inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film, this desolate and sprawling book matches the landscape in which it’s set — the Texas border. In the wake of a drug deal gone wrong, the lives of three men are tied together in a dangerous web. This book is violent and unrelenting, but readers will be drawn into the book’s web right along with the characters.  

A provocative adventure story, Outlawed is a gripping tale of a fugitive girl and a mysterious gang trying to reshape the old West. A thrilling story that includes witchy nuns, queer cowgirls and a feminist gang trying to build a safe haven for outcast women, this novel is a scrappy and joyful romp you won’t want to put down. 

Lauren Groff describes In the Distance as “exquisite: assured, moving, and masterful.” This twist on old-school westerns follows a young Swedish immigrant as he travels from west to east across the country to try to find his brother in New York. A finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Hernan Diaz’s (Trust) debut is a harrowing journey of solitude and longing.  

This impressive debut about a resilient young woman queers the Western genre. Atmospheric and immersive, this is a story of found family, houses of ill-repute and gender-defying gunslinging. Claudia Cravens joins us on our Poured Over podcast to talk about creating a tactile world, writing hot mess characters and more.  

A Booker Prize Finalist, The Sisters Brothers is a darkly funny, picaresque story about two brothers, hired guns hunting a mark during the Gold Rush. With nods to Charles Portis and Cormac McCarthy, Patrick deWitt’s deadpan humor adds a twist to the classic Western, and the result is an irresistible and surprising novel.  

Meet Nora, an unfazed frontierswoman, and Lurie, a former outlaw, when you pick up Téa Obreht’s Inland (a former B&N Book Club selection from the author of The Tiger’s Wife). A sprawling story about the beauty and harshness of the Old West, Nora and Lurie’s stories gradually converge in this intense and unsettling tale where the frontier is a character too.