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Black Woods, Blue Sky

A Novel

Author Eowyn Ivey
Illustrated by Ruth Hulbert
Hardcover
$29.00 US
| $39.00 CAN
Random House Group | Random House
On sale Feb 04, 2025 | 320 Pages | 9780593231029
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Snow Child Eowyn Ivey returns to the mythical landscapes of Alaska with an unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks the question: Can love save us from ourselves?

“No one writes like Eowyn Ivey.”—Geraldine Brooks
“You will find yourself in places you have never been.”—Louise Erdrich
“A stunning tale told by a master of her craft.”—Jason Mott

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. 

Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic and she can picture a happily ever after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it’s as if they could touch the bright blue sky. But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a novel with life-and-death stakes, about the love between a mother and daughter, and the allure of a wild life—about what we gain and what it might cost us.
“What a book—I am still enthralled and haunted. Black Woods, Blue Sky is a fable about what it is to love, a tale of longing, a call to renew our deepest bonds with the living world. It will draw you along like a fast-moving stream, and you will find yourself in places you have never been.”—Louise Erdrich, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Night Watchman and National Book Award–winning author of The Round House
 
“No one writes like Eowyn Ivey. Her voice is as enchanting as it is original and Black Woods, Blue Sky may be her best novel yet. A compelling story of love and forgiveness, it is also a page turner, creating a sense of foreboding in the vast Alaskan landscape that Ivey evokes with such passion and precision.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, and New York Times bestselling author of Horse

“A stunning tale told by a master of her craft. Black Woods, Blue Sky is what skilled storytelling is supposed to be.”—Jason Mott, National Book Award winning author of Hell of a Book, and New York Times bestselling author of The Returned

“Written with love for the Alaskan landscape, Black Woods, Blue Sky is a dazzling and moving journey into the reaches of the wilderness and of the human heart. Ivey’s prose is pure and authentic, drawing you in to the richness of these characters and of their lives. This one will stay with you.”—Tiffany McDaniel, internationally bestselling author of Betty, On the Savage Side, and The Summer that Melted Everything

“Entrancing, tender, bold, and beautifully strange . . . In Black Woods, Blue Sky, Eowyn Ivey does again what she does so brilliantly: Out of myth she weaves a beautiful contemporary story to delight the senses, and keep us turning, page by page, to the astounding end. She makes us think about the space where man becomes nature, and how we learn only when we listen to the world beyond our own. I read with my heart in my mouth, and filled with wonder. This is a very special book.”—Rachel Joyce, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Benson’s Beetle

“Black Woods, Blue Sky is an enthralling novel about the endurance of love, the power of forgiveness, and the savage, irresistible allure of wild places.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Hour
Eowyn Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. She worked for nearly a decade as a bookseller at independent Fireside Books in Palmer, Alaska, and prior to that as a reporter for the local newspaper, The Frontiersman. View titles by Eowyn Ivey
Ruth Hulbert View titles by Ruth Hulbert

About

Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Snow Child Eowyn Ivey returns to the mythical landscapes of Alaska with an unforgettable dark fairy tale that asks the question: Can love save us from ourselves?

“No one writes like Eowyn Ivey.”—Geraldine Brooks
“You will find yourself in places you have never been.”—Louise Erdrich
“A stunning tale told by a master of her craft.”—Jason Mott

Birdie’s keeping it together; of course she is. So she’s a little hungover, sometimes, and she has to bring her daughter, Emaleen, to her job waiting tables at an Alaskan roadside lodge, but she’s getting by as a single mother in a tough town. Still, Birdie can remember happier times from her youth, when she was free in the wilds of nature.

Arthur Neilsen, a soft-spoken and scarred recluse who appears in town only at the change of seasons, brings Emaleen back to safety when she gets lost in the woods. Most people avoid him, but to Birdie, he represents everything she’s ever longed for. She finds herself falling for Arthur and the land he knows so well. 

Against the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to his isolated cabin in the mountains, on the far side of the Wolverine River.

It’s just the three of them in the vast black woods, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact, but Birdie believes she has come prepared. At first, it’s idyllic and she can picture a happily ever after: Together they catch salmon, pick berries, and climb mountains so tall it’s as if they could touch the bright blue sky. But soon Birdie discovers that Arthur is something much more mysterious and dangerous than she could have ever imagined, and that like the Alaska wilderness, a fairy tale can be as dark as it is beautiful.

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a novel with life-and-death stakes, about the love between a mother and daughter, and the allure of a wild life—about what we gain and what it might cost us.

Reviews

“What a book—I am still enthralled and haunted. Black Woods, Blue Sky is a fable about what it is to love, a tale of longing, a call to renew our deepest bonds with the living world. It will draw you along like a fast-moving stream, and you will find yourself in places you have never been.”—Louise Erdrich, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Night Watchman and National Book Award–winning author of The Round House
 
“No one writes like Eowyn Ivey. Her voice is as enchanting as it is original and Black Woods, Blue Sky may be her best novel yet. A compelling story of love and forgiveness, it is also a page turner, creating a sense of foreboding in the vast Alaskan landscape that Ivey evokes with such passion and precision.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author of March, and New York Times bestselling author of Horse

“A stunning tale told by a master of her craft. Black Woods, Blue Sky is what skilled storytelling is supposed to be.”—Jason Mott, National Book Award winning author of Hell of a Book, and New York Times bestselling author of The Returned

“Written with love for the Alaskan landscape, Black Woods, Blue Sky is a dazzling and moving journey into the reaches of the wilderness and of the human heart. Ivey’s prose is pure and authentic, drawing you in to the richness of these characters and of their lives. This one will stay with you.”—Tiffany McDaniel, internationally bestselling author of Betty, On the Savage Side, and The Summer that Melted Everything

“Entrancing, tender, bold, and beautifully strange . . . In Black Woods, Blue Sky, Eowyn Ivey does again what she does so brilliantly: Out of myth she weaves a beautiful contemporary story to delight the senses, and keep us turning, page by page, to the astounding end. She makes us think about the space where man becomes nature, and how we learn only when we listen to the world beyond our own. I read with my heart in my mouth, and filled with wonder. This is a very special book.”—Rachel Joyce, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Benson’s Beetle

“Black Woods, Blue Sky is an enthralling novel about the endurance of love, the power of forgiveness, and the savage, irresistible allure of wild places.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Hour

Author

Eowyn Ivey was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. She worked for nearly a decade as a bookseller at independent Fireside Books in Palmer, Alaska, and prior to that as a reporter for the local newspaper, The Frontiersman. View titles by Eowyn Ivey
Ruth Hulbert View titles by Ruth Hulbert

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