The Vaster Wilds

This book has just catapulted Lauren Groff to the top of my must read list. It was absolutely stunning and completely bewitching a staggering exploration of the wilderness in early colonial America and the fast-encroaching reach of settlers on still untouched land. It is at its core a story about survival, about a girl who starts to run and finds that she cannot stop, and it is utterly captivating. Groffs writing is more than lush and descriptive: it is a sensory experience, visceral and disgusting mostly (Groff doesnt shy away from the horrors of the protagonists condition) but also somehow sublime and, like in Matrix, spiritual and wondrous.