About the book
He promised her never to let go. She's willing to risk everything to hold on.
In the aftermath of her husband’s logging accident, Elsa has more questions than answers about how to carry on while caring for their two small children in the unfinished house he was building for them in the woods of rural Wisconsin. To cope with the challenges of winter and the near-daily miscommunications from her in-laws, she forges her own relationship with the land, learning from and taking comfort in the trees her husband had so loved. If she wants to stay, she must discover her own capabilities, and accept help from the people and places she least expects.
Drawing from her own lived experiences, Dunbar vividly describes the wonder and harshness of life off the grid. Told over the course of a year, The Net Beneath Us is a lyrical exploration of loss, marriage, parenthood, and self-reliance; a tale of how the natural world—without and within us—offers us healing, if we can learn where to look.
“There are novels that we enjoy, but the most memorable ones, and THE NET BENEATH US is one of these, leave readers with a sense that our lives have been enriched. An astonishing debut.”
—Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena and Above the Waterfall
