A truly admirable addition to a genre defined by the very high standards of George Orwell's 1984.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “From the first page, the sense of crisis and the lucid, honest voice of the. “A work of extraordinary power, insight and lyricism, Into the Forest is both an urgent warning and a passionate celebration of life and love.” -Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade “ beautifully written and often profoundly moving novel.” - San Francisco Chronicle Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.The conceptual shift that allows them to abandon the idea of their house and of cultivating produce in favour of a roofed-over redwood stump and the foods of the forest is helped by Nell's reading about how indigenous Californians used to live.NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

But although Eva sticks to her dance practice and Nell to her studies, the demands of the present push these aspirations into irrelevance.īy the time two men have strayed in and out of their lives, leaving one sister pregnant and both terrified of the violence beyond their clearing, the depths of the forest are beginning to look less threatening than the wilderness of what was formerly civilisation. Their Christmas presents symbolise an expected return to the lives they were planning: renovated ballet shoes for Eva, a book of blank pages for Nell.

Now alone, they face the combined consequences of personal loss and more distant social calamities. They are used to living in a clearing at the end of a forestry road, but not to being without the support of parents, electricity, transport. The novel opens with two young sisters, Nell and Eva, struggling to celebrate Christmas in their isolated childhood home in California.

Into the forest book jean hegland