Thirteen-year-old Caroline and her father have lived for four years on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, in Forest Park. He has homeschooled her using encyclopedias and books from the library while also teaching her a rigid code of behavior that enables them to survive in this wilderness. Yet one small mistake allows the authorities to discover them. Their forced relocation to a horse farm outside of the city becomes only a brief respite to their deeper flight from a world that can’t understand them.
Thirteen-year-old Caroline lives rough in an Oregon nature preserve with her troubled father, a Vietnam vet. The close relationship between Caroline and Father makes living off the land seem almost normal. They avoid contact with everyone, even other homeless people, but it's not long before the authorities step in and place them in more conventional living arrangements. Tai Sammons's narration commands attention. Her matter-of-fact recounting of daily events deepens the mystery surrounding the two. In a straightforward, unemotional delivery, Sammons imparts Father's paranoia, Caroline's ability to calm him from his helicopter dreams, and her frequently lyrical observations concerning her education, her occasional bouts of loneliness, and their day-to-day survival. Definitely a worthwhile listen. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
Ursula Le Guin...
'This beautiful, strange novel takes us into the foreign country where those called homeless are at home; the city is wilderness, and the greater wilderness lies beyond. Fascinating and moving, it tells with great tenderness how human love goes wrong.'
About the Author
PETER ROCK is the author of four novels, including The Bewildered, and a collection of stories, The Unsettling. He teaches writing at Reed College and lives in Portland, Oregon.
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