The Wilderness

* ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2025 *

‘Humorous yet devastating... I loved this book' - BRIT BENNETT

‘Flournoy is singular' - RAVEN LEILANI

'Flournoy has a long-lens talent' - ELEANOR CATTON

'A triumphant whirlwind of a novel' - NAMWALI SERPELL

'One of the wisest, most talented authors working today' - JUSTIN TORRES

In 2008, Desiree, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood and of big city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood – overwhelming, mysterious and full of freedom and consequences – swoops in and stays.

Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January's got a relationship with a 'good' man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life.

As these friends transition from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another – amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability and the increasing volatility of modern life.

In The Wilderness, Angela Flournoy captures with disarming wit and electric language how life's most profound connections can lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship. It's The Vanishing Half meets The Most Fun We Ever Had, with notes of Girl, Woman, Other.

'A future classic' - HARPER'S BAZAAR

'Flournoy inhabits a quartet of shifting perspectives with wit, tenderness and exquisite grace... Evokes the hushed, disconsolate quality of [Toni] Morrison' - NEW YORK TIMES

'A fascinating look at lasting friendships... Vivid' - WASHINGTON POST

'A triumph' - LA TIMES

'Flournoy beautifully renders how love - though at times thorny and confusing - is the one thing that keeps us connected' - TIME (The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025)

***** 5-STAR READER REVIEWS FOR THE WILDERNESS *****
'Every heartbreak, triumph and turn of the text I actually felt in my body'
'Wow, this book… So real and raw'
'If you believe in the power of sisterhood, this is an unforgettable must-read'
'Will make you laugh, ache and long for your own family and friends'
'Captures the complexities of lifelong friendships with remarkable depth'
'One of my best books of the year, hands down'

This novel contains references to assisted dying and drug use, and depictions of violence, death, and police brutality.