Edge of Nowhere

Smelcer (Lone Wolves) gives readers a crash course in Alaskan history, geography, and lore in a survival story, first published in the U.K., that pits a teenager against nature’s indifference. Overweight 16-year-old Seth Evanoff is “soft” and “lazy” in the eyes of his fisherman father, who tells his son, “You wouldn’t last a day in the wilderness,” just before Seth and his dog are washed overboard during a fishing expedition. The third-person narration, decidedly adult in its perspective and tone, alternates between Seth’s struggle to survive and his widowed father’s agony as he searches for his son. Tense encounters with bears and killer whales add to the already substantial tension, and Smelcer makes Seth resourceful without being a wonderboy—unable to make a fire, he necessarily develops a taste for raw salmon, mussels, and clams. Survival information (often gleaned from what Seth’s father taught him) and Alutiiq words that Seth has learned from his grandmother are incorporated throughout. While Smelcer hammers themes of mankind’s fractured relationship with nature a bit hard, it’s a thought-provoking and moving coming-of-age story. Ages 12–up. [em](Aug.) [/em]