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| Diane Cook |
BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘The New Wilderness’: Humanity returns to nature in Diane Cook’s timely ecological tale
AUGUST 9, 2020
Been to a national park recently? There’s a feeling when, trees at your back and songbirds above, human stresses (like pandemics) seem to fall away. In the United States, whose limited wild spaces are increasingly under threat from pollution and overcrowding, access to wild calmness is becoming a scarce resource. Diane Cook’s inspired debut novel “The New Wilderness” (Harper, 416 pp., ★★★★ out of four) imagines a future in which the wilderness itself has become invite-only.
Most of the country’s population lives in the City, where thick smog has brought Bea’s little daughter, Agnes, to the brink of death. Desperate, Bea volunteers them to join the few pioneers sent into the Wilderness State, the last remaining area of natural land. They live a grand experiment, roving the plains like early humans, leaving no trace behind as they hunt and gather.
Agnes is able to breathe again as they become attuned to the earth, gaining intuitive sense of the meanings of animal calls or subtle changes in the landscape. Over the months, the group comes closer to their animal selves. “Of course, they were different from deer. But not as different as they had always imagined.”
To Bea’s relief, Agnes thrives in this wild land, becoming a key member of the tribe despite her young age. She is fluent in the ways of the natural world – but this primitive life comes harder to Bea. This is not a romantic tale of getting back to basics. In Cook’s masterful hands, there are no easy answers to the question of whether humans can actually revert to their wild selves.
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