“A back to nature tale in the tradition of Deliverance. . . . By novel’s end, Percy
has successfully put a new spin on his favorite message: Men’s bodies might be
durable, but their emotions are more brittle than they ever prefer to say.”
A
powerful first novel set in a threatened western landscape from the
award-winning author of Refresh, Refresh
Echo Canyon is a disappearing pocket of wilderness outside
of Bend, Oregon, and the site of conflicting memories for Justin Caves and his father
Paul. It’s now slated for redevelopment as a golfing resort. When Paul suggests
one last hunting trip, Justin accepts, hoping to get things right with his
father this time, and agrees to bring his son Graham along.
As the weekend unfolds, Justin is pushed to the limit by
the reckless taunting of his father, the physical demands of the terrain, and
the menacing evidence of the hovering presence of bear. All the while, he
remembers the promise he made to his skeptical wife: to keep their son safe.
“The Wilding is
a virtuoso blend of beauty and violence, hope and despair, tough and touching,
lust and terror, literary craft and genre plotting. Like James Dickey, Benjamin
Percy drags his characters into the wilderness—into a canyon as black as a
gaping mouth, where they struggle to stay alive and in control of what makes
them human—but for a new generation of readers concerned with the vanishing
West.”
—DANIELLE TRUSSONI,
author of Angelology and Falling Through the Earth
“Benjamin Percy’s The
Wilding is a tour de force meditation and treatise on the nature of
violence, the violence of nature, man in the wild, and the wild in man—cleverly
disguised as a page-turning adventure. Not just a ‘must’ read, but a need read, this book is timely,
terrifying, terrific.”
—ANTONYA NELSON
“The
Wilding is a compelling action narrative, universal in its
dimensions while utterly grounded in specific particulars. Benjamin Percy is a
stunning storyteller. His fearful wildernesses, both physical and psychic, kept
me up through the night.”
—WILLIAM KITTREDGE,
author of Hole in the Sky and The Willow Field
