Fiction Review: Heart Spring Mountain

In March, I listened to Heart Spring Mountain by Robin MacArthur on audio. It was the first novel I've read/listened to from this author, and I enjoyed the multi-generational family drama with a strong focus on nature.

Vale is living in New Orleans and working as a bartender and dancer when she gets an unexpected phone call from home. Tropical Storm Irene has come through her home state of Vermont and devastated the local area with heavy winds and flooding. A bridge near Vale's home was washed out, and her mother, Bonnie, was last seen on that bridge and is now missing. Though Vale and Bonnie have been estranged for many years due to Bonnie's drug use, Vale gets on a bus immediately and heads back to Vermont. Once there, she is immersed in the place and among the people where she grew up, for the first time in decades. As she helps in the search for Bonnie, she reconnects to her roots, once again seeing family and friends, visiting the old cabins that her ancestors lived in, and jumping back into this world she had left behind. Chapters alternate between narrators, including Vale, her mother, her grandmother, her great-aunt, her great-grandmother, and more. In all, five generations of Vale's family narrate this novel, from different time periods spanning almost a hundred years, all in this remote area of the Vermont woods. As the reader learns more about Vale's family history in the past, Vale uncovers some long-held family secrets in the present. Nature, the outdoors, and wildlife are ever-present in both Vale's present and in the past, providing a connection through the generations.

I enjoyed this family drama with several surprising twists in it. Listening on audio, I was a bit confused at first by all the different female narrators from different time periods, but a quick family tree sketched out on a Post-It note while I listened helped me keep them straight! By the time some unexpected secrets were revealed, I had a good grasp of the family dynamics and understood the consequences of those surprises. The novel has a strong sense of place, and nature plays a significant role in the story and in Vale's family. I enjoyed listening to this emotionally complex family narrative set in such a unique, wild, and beautiful place.

368 pages, Ecco

HarperAudio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the beginning of the novel, as Bonnie experiences the storm.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    
  

 

Or you can order Heart Spring Mountain from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.