Survival at your feet
Jean Hegland gives us a provocative novel about a family who lived far on the out skirts of a northern California small town surrounded by second growth redwood forest. The two girls, Eva, 17, and Nell (the protagonist) 16, explored the forest in their younger years, heeding the many warnings of their mother to beware the many perils lurking in the woods. As they became older, their interest in playing in the forest waned, replaced by Eva’s commitment to ballet and Nell’s advanced self-education to prepare for matriculation to Harvard.
Unfortunately, their mother’s untimely death heralds the collapse of their society as they know it. Political and environmental catastrophes create anarchy on a local and Read more »




