A Story of Survival

The new wilderness, by Diane Cook

by Liz Treacher, Author

Looking for something original and captivating with a touch of the dystopian? The New Wilderness (Harper, 2020) by Diane Cook could be the next book for you.


Diane Cook is an American writer based in New York. The New Wilderness is her first novel and the fact that it was shortlisted for the 2020 Booker prize is testament to its power.


The New Wilderness tells the story of a mother’s struggle to save her daughter in a world threatened by climate change. Five-year-old Agnes is slowly dying from the smog and pollution of an over-populated city. In order to try and get her away from the metropolis, Bea and her husband Glen volunteeer to take part in a study to see if humans can live in the last remaining area of wilderness as part of a group of eighteen people. The family are propelled back in time to become hunter-gatherers and learn how to survive as part of a tribe. They have to live in untouched nature, not just for a few months or years but for the rest of their lives, without destroying it or altering it in any way. This means hunting with bows and arrows, building makeshift camps and having almost no contact with civilisation.

Through the book’s different characters, Cook shows us the best and the worst that people are capable of when all comfort and security has been taken away. The novel explores our place in nature and how we interract with each other, but it is predominantly the story of a mother-daughter relationship and how that can change. Compelling and atmospheric.

Liz Treacher is a writer and teacher based in Dornoch. Her two romantic comedies (The Wrong Envelope and The Wrong Direction) are set in 1920 and tell the story of an impetuous artist and his determined post lady. Both titles are available to buy from Dornoch bookshop.