Black Woods, Blue Sky

By: Eowyn Ivey

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

From the author of THE SNOW CHILD, the million-copy bestseller, BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY is a novel about the beauty and terror of the Alaskan wilderness, the love between a mother and a daughter, and what it means to face down our fears and survive them.

'Dazzling and moving' Tiffany McDaniel, author of BETTY
'I am enthralled and haunted' Louise Erdrich, author of THE ROUND HOUSE and THE NIGHT WATCHMAN

Birdie's keeping it together, of course she is. So she's a little hungover on her shifts at times, and has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits tables, but Emaleen never goes hungry. It's a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by.

And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie's fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks Birdie and Emaleen to leave the lodge and make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie's answer, in a heartbeat, is yes.

Out in the wilderness Birdie's days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.

BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY is a daring reimagining of the legend of Beauty and the Beast, that asks the question: can love save us from ourselves?

©2025 Eowyn Ivey (P)2025 Headline Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

'No one writes like Eowyn Ivey. Her voice is as enchanting as it is original and Bear Story 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, author of YEAR OF WONDERS and HORSE)