Introduction

A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls. Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

If you want to put me in Hell, plunk me down in the middle of a party where I don’t know anyone. If you want to be really thorough, fill the place with drunken college kids. And make sure every other one manages to spill a drink on me. Don’t tell me about the party in advance, so I show up in sweatpants and ponytails. While you’re at it, put a bubble- gum pink cat carrier under my arm. With a pissed- off mini dachshund inside. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Helen decides to go into the wilderness because she thinks she needs to learn to be more brave. At first, in fact, she’s hoping to turn herself into a tough guy like Chuck Norris (“Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.”) She doesn’t become that kind of brave—but what other strengths does she find in herself?

2. Helen comes to see the kids on the hiking trip very differently as time goes on—particularly Beckett. How does their relationship evolve?

3. Helen’s relationship with her brother Duncan changes quite a bit during the story. What about her time on the trip—those experiences with those people—allows her to see him differently? Would what GiGi told her on the day she paints her portrait have had the same impact if Helen hadn’t gone on the trip?

4. When Helen worries about Jake being ten years younger than she is, Grandma GiGi says, “You know that doesn’t matter.” Does it matter? In what ways are Helen and Jake well-suited to each other? In what ways do you think they’ll clash?

5. Helen’s a bit of a fish out of water. At one point, wondering what she’s even doing there, she said, “When Duncan first told me about this survival course, I’d been planning a trip to Paris. I’d given up Paris for the wisdom of the wilderness.” Have you ever forced yourself to do anything scary, or hard, or outside your comfort zone because you thought it would help you get stronger or wiser?

6. Windy says that “getting what you want doesn’t make you happy” and “happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition.” What do you think? Windy is a complicated mixture of likable friend and romantic foil. Was she an appealing character to you?

7. There’s something Helen really, really wants in the story that she doesn’t get. What do you think she’ll take away from that disappointment? How do you think she’ll learn from it?

8. Were there any particular quotes that stood out for you? Why?

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