Reading Order
The Great Alone Reading Order
Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone (2018) is a complete standalone novel. It is unrelated to her other novels, including The Nightingale. The novel follows Leni Allbright, whose family moves to remote Alaska in 1974 when her father, a traumatized Vietnam veteran, decides their only chance at survival is to homestead. The Alaskan wilderness and her father's mental instability become equally threatening forces. The Great Alone was a number one New York Times bestseller and is Hannah's second most popular novel after The Nightingale.
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The Great Alone
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The Great Alone
Kristin Hannah·2018·Standalone — a family moves to remote Alaska in 1974; the wilderness and a traumatized, volatile father are equally dangerous; a coming-of-age novel set against one of the most extreme landscapes in America
The Great Alone — Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Great Alone related to The Nightingale?
No — The Great Alone and The Nightingale are completely independent novels with no shared characters or settings. The Nightingale is set in occupied France during World War II; The Great Alone is set in Alaska in the 1970s. Both are by Kristin Hannah, but they have nothing else in common.
Is The Great Alone a romance?
The Great Alone has a significant romance at its center — between Leni and Matthew Walker, the son of a neighboring family — but the novel is more accurately described as a coming-of-age story about a girl surviving an abusive, unstable father and a brutal wilderness. The romance is one of several ways the novel explores what it means to love someone when your world is defined by violence and isolation.
Is The Great Alone historically accurate about Alaska?
The Great Alone is set in a real historical moment — the 1970s back-to-the-land movement that brought many Vietnam veterans and counterculture figures to remote Alaska. Hannah researched the Alaska homesteading movement extensively. The wilderness details, the seasons, and the specific challenges of off-grid living in Alaska are accurate; the characters and specific events are fictional.
What role does the Alaska wilderness play in The Great Alone?
The Alaskan wilderness is treated almost as a character in the novel — both a source of beauty and freedom and an equally dangerous force to the violence inside the family home. Hannah uses the twenty-hour winter darkness specifically: the father's mental instability worsens each winter, and the darkness becomes a recurring symbol of the fear that has moved into the family. The wilderness offers both escape and trap.
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