The Great Alone
In 1974 thirteen-year-old Leni Allbright moves with her fragile mother Cora and her volatile Vietnam veteran father Ernt to a cabin in the Alaskan bush, on land Ernt has impulsively inherited from a fallen brother. The Kaneq homesteaders who welcome them, from the iron-spined matriarch Large Marge to a quiet neighbor boy named Matthew, teach the family how to put up salmon, shoot moose, and lay in wood before the long dark. But the land that Ernt thought would save him only draws his paranoia closer to the surface, and as the winter nights stretch out Leni and Cora are increasingly alone with him. Kristin Hannah's novel is part wilderness survival, part love story, part unsparing portrait of intimate partner violence in a place where help is three hundred miles away.
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What you might want to know about The Great Alone
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1974, Leni Allbright is thirteen when her unstable Vietnam POW father Ernt moves the family to a cabin in remote Kaneq, Alaska. Her mother Cora believes the wilderness will heal him, but as winter closes in and his temper sharpens, Leni learns that the danger is inside the cabin.
The Great Alone is fictional but inspired by Kristin Hannah's own family experience moving to Alaska in the 1980s. The setting and atmosphere are deeply researched; the family is invented.
Yes. A film adaptation was announced. As of 2025, the project remains in development.
The Great Alone was written by Kristin Hannah, published in 2018 by St. Martin's Press.
The Great Alone is 50 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Great Alone takes most readers under an hour to finish.
The Great Alone is a standalone novel by Kristin Hannah, not part of a series.
The Great Alone is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
