Kilbourn Public Library Book Club

The May book selection for the Kilbourn Public Library Book Discussion Group is The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. 

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision:  he will  move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America's last true frontier.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska--a place of incomparable beauty and danger.  The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature. 

Alaska is definitely a character in this novel.  The author clearly wants you to understand both the grandeur and the danger that are present every day in the Last Frontier.  How did the landscape create and shape this story?  Is this a story that could have taken place anywhere?  Or was the solitude of Alaska part of the fabric of the novel?

What aspects of the Alaska/homesteader lifestyle would you find the most challenging in the wild?  How would you handle the isolation, the interdependence among neighbors, the climate?  Would you have what it takes to survive?

The Great Alone is set in the turbulent world of America in the 1970's.  Why do you think the author chose this time period?  How did the world at that time, with the political unrest and kidnappings and plane hijackings, factor into the plot? 

Ernt was a POW for several years.  Do you believe, as Cora tells Leni, that he was "changed" when he came home?  Did the war and PTSD "make" Ernt violent, or do you believe he was violent before?

Why do you think Cora stayed with Ernt all those years?  Was it love?  Fear?  In general, why do you think women stay with abusive men?

Would you say Leni is a survivor?  Is Cora?

In many ways, The Great Alone, is a mother-daughter love story, but one with a broken spine.  How did Cora let Leni down in life?  How did she save her?  Do you think Cora was a good mother?

How did the building of Ernt's wall affect you as a reader?  As he was building it, what did you think was going to happen?

At the end of the story, Leni ends up back in Alaska--do you think there's an ultimate place where people belong?  How would you know if you got there?

Let us know what you think of The Great Alone!