Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country, where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving much from their long friendship unspoken. Although the state of Maine has convulsed all summer with secession mania — a mania that has simultaneously spread across other states — Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or, worse-case scenario, folks in the capital.
But after weeks hunting off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked by what they find: a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and cars abandoned on the road. Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, they set their sights on finding their way home, dragging a wagon across bumpy dirt roads, scavenging from boats left in lakes, and dodging armed men — secessionists or U.S. military, they cannot tell — as they seek a path to safety. Then a startling discovery drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape.
Drenched with the beauty of the natural world and attuned to the specific cadences of male friendship, even here at the edge of doom, Burn is both a blistering warning about a divided country’s political strife and an ode to the salvation found in our chosen families.
Praise & Reviews for Burn
“If he writes it, I will read it! This is my mantra regarding author, Peter Heller. Burn is the story of two lifelong friends that emerge from the deep woods after a long hunting trip only to find a dystopian scene. Secessionists have taken control of Maine and have left grave destruction in their wake. This page turner is a story of survival, shock, friendship, morality and the risks of polarization. You will fly through the pages but the story will linger with you for a very long time.”
— Fran Ziegler, Titcomb’s Bookshop
“The power of the unspoken is deafening in Peter Heller’s powerful and rewarding tour de force, Burn. Two best friends on an extended hunting trip in rural northern Maine find themselves trapped behind the lines of a violent secessionist movement. The book is filled with exceptionally well rooted nature writing and a narrative intensity driven by the slowly unfurling mystery and danger of Jess and Storey’s circumstances. Yet, as the pieces slowly fall into place, all these strengths primarily serve to heighten and illuminate Burn’s core narrative, an exploration of what we owe each other, what our interpersonal responsibilities are and how the way we handle that responsibility defines the horizons of our personal narratives.”
— Kenny Brechner at Devaney Doak and Garrett Booksellers, Farmington ME
“I could not put this book down, and finished the entire thing one morning. Told in tension filled prose, Heller takes us through the Maine woods during a rogue militia takeover where the hunters come upon burned villages, corpses, dead dogs, only boats left rocking in the lake breeze. Their lives are at stake and only their bravery, intuition and risk can save them. What a thrilling ride!”
— Annie Philbrick, Bank Square Books
“Every fall childhood friends Jess and Storey spend a few weeks hunting and hiking in the woods of Northern Maine. This year when they emerge it’s into an eerily silent and changed world of burned and destroyed towns largely devoid of people. Has Maine succeeded from the Union? A civil war? Burn by Peter Heller is a riveting and chilling novel of survival and friendship set in a very possible near future. Highly recommended!”
— Caitlin Baker/Island Books/Mercer Island, WA
Peter Heller is an award winning fiction writer and the author of acclaimed novels The Dog Stars, The River, Celine, and The Last Ranger, among others. He is a longtime contributor to NPR, and a former contributing editor at Outside Magazine, Men’s Journal, and National Geographic Adventure. An award winning adventure writer, he is the author of four books of literary nonfiction. Heller was born and raised in New York. He attended high school in Vermont and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. At the Iowa Writers Workshop he earned an MFA in both fiction and poetry, and was awarded the prestigious Michener Fellowship for his narrative poem The Psalms of Malvine. He is a passionate outdoorsman and lives with his wife in Colorado.
NYT Bestselling Author | National Bestselling Author | Reading the West Book Award Winner
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AN INDIE NEXT PICK FOR AUGUST 2023
“Chosen by independent booksellers across the country as a recommended read”
Officer Ren Hopper is an enforcement ranger with the National Park Service, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: Breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving clueless tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp through the park with cameras, and the residents of hardscrabble Cooke City who want to carve out a meaningful living. When Ren, hiking through the backcountry on his day off, encounters a tall man with a dog and a gun chasing a small black bear up a hill, his hackles are raised. But what begins as an investigation into the background of a local poacher soon opens into something far murkier: A shattered windshield, a series of red ribbons tied to traps, the discovery of a frightening conspiracy, and a story of heroism gone awry.
Populated by a cast of extraordinary characters-famous scientists, tattooed bartenders, wildlife guides in slick Airstreams-and bursting with unexpected humor and grace, Peter Heller masterfully unveils a portrait of the American west where our very human impulses-for greed, love, family, and community-play out amidst the stunning beauty of the natural world.
Praise & Reviews for The Last Ranger
“Heller writes in lean, descriptive, contemplative prose that often reflects a spirit of solitude…Ren, like his literary creator, is a philosopher at heart; you get the feeling he’d do just fine hanging with Thoreau at Walden Pond…The thrills of The Last Ranger…should resonate with any thoughtful reader who considers the human relationship to the world that was here before we arrived, and, hopefully, will be here after we shuffle off this mortal coil.”
— The Boston Globe
“Heller’s best books…have a lickety-split pace and archetypal characters whose behavior makes sense to us partly because he keeps them mysterious, forcing us to fill in their motivations.…Throughout the novel there’s a sense that good and evil aren’t as easy to separate as we’d like to believe. Maybe Heller’s point is that the ‘good guys’ are the mountains and the streams and the ‘bad guys’ are all the people who think those things were put here for us.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
When describing wildlife and landscapes, he deploys the precision and cadence of Ernest Hemingway…Heller’s swift…thriller reminds us that humans are the most successful predators-but not the only predators.
— BookPage
A good story that’s intertwined like leaves afloat in a river with the current of Heller’s descriptive powers.…Filled with Heller’s lush writing, The Last Ranger is a simple but powerful story.
— The Denver Post
Heller offers an immersive story of a dedicated Yellowstone park ranger and the threats he faces down.…Strong characterizations, a vivid sense of place, enough wolf lore to fill several NatGeo specials, and a Boy Scout Handbook’s worth of wood-crafting tips. Fans of fiction about the outdoors are well served.
— Publishers Weekly
Peter Heller’s adventurous novel centers on a Yellowstone National Park ranger with a poet’s heart and a troubled past. The ranger’s endeavors to solve mysteries, keep the peace, and safeguard a cherished friend are reverence in action. Heller’s lyrical prose captures gorgeous natural landscapes, captivating wildlife facts, wolf folklore, and a vibrant community of characters.
— Christian Science Monitor
Fast-paced, elegantly written.…Along with evocative descriptions of Yellowstone’s stunning beauty, Heller efficiently creates a small cast of fully realized characters … Life and death in nature are close companions in a fast-moving and lyrical story.
— Kirkus
“Heller’s lyrical prose captures gorgeous natural landscapes, captivating wildlife facts, wolf folklore, and a vibrant community of characters.”
— The Christian Science Monitor
“A warning about man’s encroachment on the Western wilderness and another variation on the solitary-man theme [Heller] does so well.…It contains some wonderful writing about endangered wolves and the obsessive behaviorist who studies them.”
— Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail
“Heller is back to creating natural vistas that make a reader want to grab a fishing rod and plunge deep into a grove of aspens and fish an isolated creek deep in the mountains. Where the problems of the world are winnowed down to getting a trout to set on a fly you tied yourself.…The Last Ranger is once again Peter Heller at his best. I’m not a fisherman, but Heller makes me wish I was one.”
— Drew Gallagher, The Free-Lance Star
“The rugged nature of Yellowstone permeates every page of the latest outdoors adventure from Heller, a tale populated with lyrically defined characters.…This is wilderness noir at its best, a novel that will please fans of C. J. Box, Craig Johnson, and the legions of admirers of the television series, Yellowstone.”
— Booklist
“Fast-paced, elegantly written.…Along with evocative descriptions of Yellowstone’s stunning beauty, Heller efficiently creates a small cast of fully realized characters, most notably Ren, who’s still struggling with grief over the death of a mother who introduced him to the natural world before abandoning her family. But as the author displays in a thrilling climactic chase scene, he doesn’t neglect his obligation to bring what at heart is a nature adventure story to a satisfying conclusion.…Life and death in nature are close companions in a fast-moving and lyrical story.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“When describing wildlife and landscapes, [Heller] deploys the precision and cadence of Ernest Hemingway.…In a subplot, Heller also dramatizes another threat to our national parks: militias and business interests who want to turn public land into private holdings. Heller’s swift environmental thriller reminds us that humans are the most successful predators — but not the only predators.”
— Bookpage
