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Formats
Hardcover Details
  • 03/2016
  • 9780990924807 0990924807
  • 220 pages
  • $21.95
Kipp Wessel
Author
First, You Swallow the Moon
Kipp Wessel, author

Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)

At twenty-four years old, all Jack Hesley knows with certainty is he's head over heels in love. But his life (and love) veers from center when his brother's car careens across an icy Wisconsin interstate and into a stand of pine. Stunned by loss, Jack retreats into isolation - a depression so stubborn the only thing forceful enough to cross its threshold arrives in the shape of wild bears. He dreams them. He becomes obsessed by them. And he alters the trajectory of his path forward, risking limb and love, to follow real bears, grizzlies, into the thick woods of western Montana to untangle their impossible message - to become one of them.

Finalist

Plot/Idea: 10 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 10 out of 10
Character/Execution: 10 out of 10
Overall: 10.00 out of 10

Assessment:

Dreams of bears, and then obsession with real ones, draw grieving Jack from Minnesota to Montana. The first person narrative and the novel’s pace reflect the looping road of grief, traveled by Jack and by his girlfriend, Clare. The novel is tender, sad and, eventually, hopeful – it pulls the reader in because the characters and their plights and actions are fully believable. The prose is clean and lovely, calibrated for maximum emotional impact.

Date Submitted: June 02, 2016

Reviews
Midwest Book Review

"First, You Swallow the Moon" by Kipp Wessel is a deftly crafted, reader engaging, modern novel of love, loss, heartbreak, redemption, wilderness, and the sometimes seemingly impossible act of letting go. A compelling read from beginning to end, "First, You Swallow the Moon" is very highly recommended for personal reading lists and community library General Fiction collections.
 

Formats
Hardcover Details
  • 03/2016
  • 9780990924807 0990924807
  • 220 pages
  • $21.95
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