David Vann

Caribou Island David Vann

On a small island in a glacier-fed lake on Alaskas Kenai Peninsula, Gary and Irenes marriage is unraveling. Gary, driven by thirty years of diverted plans, is determined to build the cabin he has always wanted, believing it will recapture what once drew him to Alaska. Irene knows better. She suspects that the cabin is Garys first step to leaving her. Soon they are hauling logs out to Caribou Island in good weather and in terrible storms, in sickness and in health. But setbacks create chinks in Garys half-baked design, and Irene is stricken with mysterious headaches and troubling flashes of her tragic past. With each trip to the island their desperation escalates, and when winter comes early, the punishing desolation of the prehistoric wilderness threatens to push them to the edge and end a marriage sustained by pain and rage that has been simmering for years.