This Great Wilderness

Name: This Great Wilderness
Brand: Findaway Voices
Availability: InStock
Author: Eva Seyler
ISBN: 9781736029763

Author: Eva Seyler

Narrator: Jayne Entwistle

Unabridged: 11 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Issoria Press

Published: 05/03/2022

Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction

Synopsis

Argentina, 1951. For most people, World War Two has been over for six years, but it’s still a brutal reality for Leni Mayer, brought to Buenos Aires by a Nazi who took her captive in 1940 and never let her go. Lonely and despairing, she longs for a chance to return to England and be herself again.Butterfly enthusiast Raymond Varela and his eight-year-old son Anton have come to Patagonia in an effort to start life afresh after the losses of the war years. Haunted by the death of his wife in a bombing raid in 1943, Raymond longs to let the peaceful wilderness heal him, but instead he faces chaos when a runaway Leni intrudes into their expedition.As the months pass, Raymond and Leni’s perceptions of one another begin to shift, but the strength of their feelings will be tested when they return to Buenos Aires, where danger lurks around every corner, and sunshiny Anton, who brought them together, may be the very thing that drives them apart.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Allison on September 20, 2021

Seyler's latest novel is a haunting exploration of the long tail of war, depicting griefs that seem to stretch as endlessly as the plains of Patagonia that Raymond, Leni, and Anton traverse. At times brutal, yet always suffused with hope, THIS GREAT WILDERNESS is a study of healing and second chance......more

Goodreads review by Lindsey on December 28, 2021

This was a beautifully written novel, unlike none I have read before. It takes place post-World War II, told in alternating perspectives of Leni, Raymond, and Anton. It is a slow-moving novel that builds the story and relationships among these three characters, coming together fiercely in the last h......more

Goodreads review by Helen on March 04, 2022

1951 Argentina World War II is the subject of many current historical novels, mostly focused on events in Europe, but This Great Wilderness concerns itself with an often-overlooked postscript: the flight of many prominent Nazis to Argentina. In 1951, Raymond Varela and his young son Anton – a frail ch......more

Goodreads review by Karen on December 29, 2021

I've now read two versions of this book, and am leaving a review before the official publication date because I want others to understand how good it is! This Great Wilderness is narrated by three people: Raymond Varela, a widowed police inspector running from his past; his son, Anton, running toward......more