My Abandonment
A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a...
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A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight. Inspired by a true story and told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, Caroline, My Abandonment is a riveting journey into life at the margins and a mesmerizing tale of survival and hope.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780151014149 (0151014140)
Publish date: March 12th 2009
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages no: 240
Edition language: English
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially liked the tone of the narrator, Caroline. She is straightforward and guileless, which seemed appropriate for someone who has been raised alongside but separate from society, and who has been taught to mistrust everyone who is not her father. I can't imagi...
I had forgotten that My Abandonment was largely based on a true story. (The author's website has .pdf copies of the articles he was drawing from.) Somebody from Oregon, and maybe the Pacific Northwest in general, might remember when this was in the news, but I wasn't familiar with it. The second hal...
Weird but oddly compelling story of a girl & her father who live off the grid.
This novel tells the story of a man and his daughter who lives in a Portland park for 4 years without detection. It's not that they don't have the money to live elsewhere (the father gets checks from the government), but that they've chosen to live in the woods rather than the way everyone else live...