This month’s reading selections offer a small literary journey through landscapes. In these novels, natural settings play a prominent role and accompany the development of the stories, whether through mountain trails, coastal marshes, or distant territories where nature is part of everyday life.
Through these settings, the authors craft narratives that allow readers to travel through their imagination and sense how the environment influences the characters’ decisions and emotions.
In the Land of the Long White Cloud, Sarah Lark
Novel
Published: 2007
Pages: 667
Author’s nationality: German.
Sarah Lark’s novel In the Land of the Long White Cloud follows two English women who leave Europe in the nineteenth century to begin completely new lives in a distant colony of the British Empire. Both travel to New Zealand in arranged marriages, a common practice among settlers who hoped to establish families in territories that were still in the process of being settled.
The landscape holds a very visible place in the narrative. Vast grasslands, the snow-covered mountains of the Southern Alps, and large sheep stations form the backdrop of a story about colonization, work, and ambition.
The author depicts rural life, journeys across open fields, and the growth of farms, allowing readers to see how the land shapes both the colony’s economy and the character of those trying to build a future there.
Who’d like this?
This book may especially appeal to readers who enjoy sweeping family sagas and historical novels with rich settings.
Quotes
- “The world plays rough with fools.”
- “Oh well, no rain, no grass.”
Readers say
- “I enjoyed the narrative style of the author and could not put the book down”, says an Amazon user.
- “The book was long, but it never lagged in its entertainment and I was always looking forward to returning to it”, says an Amazon user.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed
Autobiography
Published: 2012
Pages: 336
Author’s nationality: US
A solitary hike of more than a thousand miles becomes the starting point for a story of personal rebuilding. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed recounts the real journey of a woman who decides to hike a long stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States after a period marked by the death of her mother, the end of her marriage, and a series of self-destructive decisions.
Strayed walks through scorching deserts where water is scarce and every mile demands endurance, crosses the Sierra Nevada among snow and dangerous trails, and continues through dense forests in the Northwest where the sense of solitude becomes almost absolute.
Who’d like this?
This book may appeal to readers who enjoy powerful personal memoirs, travel narratives, stories of resilience, and books in which the landscape directly shapes the protagonist’s experience.
Quotes
- “Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves…”
- “I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free.”
Readers say
- “Beautifully written and so descriptive that my feet hurt from the miles walked through Cheryl’s words”, says an Amazon user.
- “I think this book is a must read. It was inspiring and uplifting, in a way that only a book about a woman who has hit rock bottom and fights her way back up can”, says an Amazon user.
Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
Novel
Published: 2018
Pages: 399
Author’s nationality: US
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens tells the story of Kya Clark, a girl who grows up largely alone in the marshes of North Carolina after her family gradually abandons her. The novel combines this coming-of-age story with a criminal investigation that begins when a young man from town is found dead, an event that turns the community’s attention toward the girl who has always lived on the margins.
The landscape is the true heart of the narrative. The marshes, the brackish waterways, the birds, and the rhythms of the tides create a living world that accompanies every stage of Kya’s life.
Owens describes this environment with careful attention to wildlife and vegetation, turning the wetlands into something far more than a simple backdrop.
Who’d like this?
This book often attracts readers looking for a story that blends human drama, mystery, and a highly evocative setting.
Quotes
- “I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”
- “Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
Readers say
- “The author’s style is picturesque and has a flow to it. It is clearly written, but is not a light read. It is the kind of book I needed to give my full attention”, says an Amazon user.
- “Count me among the thousands of readers who think ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is a wonderful tale and a joy to read”, says an Amazon user.