NOW A MAJOR FILM, LEAVE NO TRACE, DIRECTED BY DEBRA GRANIK AND STARRING BEN FOSTER AND THOMASIN HARCOURT MCKENZIE

“Poignant . . . My Abandonment lingers in the mind, leaving you as haunted as its mesmerizing characters.”—New York Post
 
"This is probably the recent novel I recommend most... [a] short, disciplined, unsettling book."—Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life and The People in the Trees, for GQ

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.

“Original, unusual, and addictive.”—Oregonian

“[A] beautiful, strange novel . . . Fascinating and moving, it tells with great tenderness how human love goes wrong.”—Ursula K. Le Guin