Bear: A Novel by Julia Phillips

“What you have here is an interesting, perhaps once in a lifetime, brush with nature. Keep a respectful distance and enjoy.”

Sisters, Sam and Elena, born only thirteen months apart, live on an island in the Pacific Northwest with their mother, working hard to keep their lives afloat. They spend their spare moments longing for the day they will be able to escape the drudgery of their days. A tourist place, they feel more like peasants serving people who do not see them as anything but ‘the help’. Despite the weight of their days, they cling to hope and their plan, even as it gets harder and harder to believe in. The eldest, Elena, deals with practicalities, they need to save money before they can leave, and for now, all of it must go elsewhere- bills, food, and their mother’s care. The only thing of value is their house, “a 1979 vinyl-nightmare”. Rather than pulling them out of poverty, it has anchored them deeper in it. How will their lives ever change? How can they hope for better? They are too wise to believe anyone will save them but themselves.

Magic appears in the form of a wild creature, impossible and yet… Sam saw it with her own eyes while working on the ferry. A glorious thing, something to pull her out of the sorrows and the stark reality of facing their mother’s decline. Rather than feeling frightened, Sam is enchanted. Long ago they dreamed of something special happening, and finally it has. It’s like a fairy tale, it makes her feel young again, something they never really were, forced into adulthood too soon. They know all about sorrow, about being shattered, but for once, this experience is not something to come, it is now, it is here, and it lights up their lives. The past wounded them far more than any wild beast ever could. The experts do not have all the answers, do they? “All will be well”.

Will this be the turning point? Can the magic last? While reading, I was on the precipice of a big moment, smelling the musk, at one with nature, and boy did this tale pull me in. The end left me with a gasp. There is a perfect parable I wish I could share, but it would give too much away. Yes, yes, yes read it! I loved it.

Publication Date:  June 25, 2024

Random House

Hogarth