The Mountain Story
A Novel
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4.5 • 41 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Four lost hikers are about to discover they’re capable of something extraordinary.
Nola has gone up the mountain to commemorate her wedding anniversary, the first since her beloved husband passed. Blonde, stick-thin Bridget is training for a triathalon. Vonn is working out her teenage rebellion at eight thousand feet, driven by family obligation and the urge to escape her mistakes. Still reeling from the tragic accident that robbed him of his best friend, Wolf Truly is the only experienced hiker among them, but he has come to the cliffs on his eighteenth birthday without food or supplies because he plans to take his own life.
When a series of missteps strands this unusual group together in the wilderness, they soon realize that their only defense against the brutality of nature is one another. As one day without rescue spirals dramatically into the next, and misadventure turns to nightmare, these four broken souls begin to form an inextricable bond, pushing themselves and one another further than they ever could have dreamed possible. The three who make it home alive will be forever changed by their harrowing days on the mountain.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls, The Mountain Story is a fast-paced, suspenseful adventure and a gorgeous tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Braving a landscape both unforgivingly harsh and breathtakingly beautiful, Nola, Bridget, Vonn, and Wolf find themselves faced with an impossible question: How much will they sacrifice for a stranger?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lansens (The Girls) has written a colorful, adventurous wilderness survival novel. Wilfred "Wolf" Truly decides on his 18th birthday during the late 1970s to commit suicide by leaping off the cliffs of the California batholith known as Angel's Peak. The decision comes after a series of personal setbacks, including a serious injury to his best friend Byrd Diaz, the early violent death of his mother, Glory, and the imprisonment of his ne'er-do-well father, Frankie. When the depressed Wolf rides the tram to ascend Angel's Peak, his fellow passengers are three generations of the Devine family: granddaughter Vonn, mother Bridget, and grandmother Nola. He discovers the often sick Vonn has a party-girl streak, the clairvoyant Bridget has trained for a triathlon, and the newly widowed Nola carries her husband Pip's cremated remains to sprinkle atop Angel's Peak. On their trek to reach the summit, with the November darkness falling, the ill-equipped hikers get lost. As they begin a harrowing five-day ordeal in the remote alpine outback, Wolf forgets his suicidal intentions. The realistic details, such as the traditional herbal medicine used to fight Nola's broken-bone infection and the threatening coyotes and vultures, provide the narrative's raw edge. Genre readers will also be swept along as the suspense builds in this first-rate character-driven thriller.
Customer Reviews
Couldn't put it down.
Highly recommend!
The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens
Redemption. Coming of age. Survival. Love: for friends, for family, for nature, for life.
If you're tired of books that bring nothing fresh to these oft cliched themes, read this book. Lansens makes the old new, the tired invigorating, the big reveal truly a revelation: over and over and over. You won't be tempted to skip a word, and you'll want to gift this title to everyone you know: men, women, those who read and those who prefer to go out and do. It is superb modern fiction & more. One of the best upcoming titles for 2015.