The Vaster Wilds

In the winter of 1609 to 1610, a servant girl leaves the starving English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, and walks into the wilderness by herself. She has a handful of possessions and a stubborn will to stay alive. Nobody goes with her.

The novel follows her across forest, river and snow, and cuts between the physical hardships of the road and the memories she is fleeing. Those memories include the household she served and the child who was in her care.

This is survival fiction written in dense, ornate prose. It pays more attention to the girl's inner life and to the land around her than to plot, so the pace is slow and immersive rather than driven by events.

It is Lauren Groff's fifth novel and the second book in a planned triptych that began with Matrix. It won the Florida Book Awards gold medal for General Fiction. The question running under every mile is what she is running from, and whether she can outlast it.