The Wilderness: A Novel

As a huge fan of Angela Flournoy’s first novel, The Turner House, I was thrilled to read her latest, The Wilderness, and it did not disappoint.

Told in alternating time periods between the 2000s and the 2020s — denoted by chapter headings — the novel moves back and forth within the lives of its five central characters: Desiree, Danielle (these two are sisters), and their friends Nakia, Monique, and January. Each character grapples with being a black woman in America, primarily in New York or Los Angeles, and what it means to grow up, become an adult, and find a passion or career without losing herself.

Desiree and Danielle are polar opposites who have the same family trauma. While Desiree, as the younger sister, recalls some of what led them to their current estrangement, Danielle’s memories are more developed and more haunting because she was old enough, when the family crumbled, for those experiences to take deep root in her heart. Nakia’s dreams of being a restauranteur take her in directions she didn’t expect, as does her love life, but she must confront what it means to have enough and be content in the moments when nothing is wrong, exactly, but little feels complete.

This is similar to the experiences of January and Monique. January has been in a relationship for over ten years with a man she’s unsure about while Monique, a passionate librarian whose life changes course after a talk she gave goes viral, is unstable and uncertain about what her future should be.

Flournoy renders these women’s experiences beautifully and makes the pain and solace of their friendship real on every page. This is a home run.