In the landscape of literary fiction, you trek a difficult path to find an author more preoccupied with God and with creativity than Lauren Groff. Debatably, you could say the question of vocation forms the chief question in Groff’s work. This new novel builds on this theme in subtle, if a touch dull, ways. Set in 17th-century colonial America, Groff’s tale follows a teen girl who escapes a starving colony to find her way through untamed country to whatever hopeful place caused people to leave the tame, old world for the new. That sparse plot line represents just about the whole. The textures are unmistakably Groff, and readers will relish her sentences and the details they convey. But those looking for more story may be disappointed. Read on for our Christian review of “The Vaster Wilds”.
Review by Aaron Cline Hanbury