Take Root
Take Root
Amanda RudeliusA remarkable debut novel of recovery and rebirth. The story of one woman escaping a violent past and finding refuge in nature.
In a hunting lodge in the forests of Värmland, Aino is trying to build a new life for herself after a dangerous, destructive relationship. The pine and spruce trees become her refuge. But her newfound solitude is filled with memories and fear, and a natural world that both sustains and tests her. Living under a protected identity, Aino is constantly looking over her shoulder with a distant uncle as her only connection to her old life.
Until she meets her neighbours Berta and Dan, who have dedicated their lives to protecting the trees and species threatened with extinction, Aino is drawn into a struggle for the forest, for survival and for the right to exist. All the while, she must remain hidden from her past. When the forestry machines break the silence and approach the hunting lodge, her fragile sense of security is torn apart. As she gathers the courage to dare to begin again, she discovers that her past may well have caught up to her. Will she find the strength to start anew?
Finely placed throughout the narrative are beautiful and short vignettes of nature writing and descriptions of the specific endangered species of flora found within the forest, Amanda Rudelius’s debut is an intense novel about hea ling and courage. About recovery and rebirth. Ultimately, it is a novel about reclaiming control.
