July 29, 2024
Nadelson (While It Lasts) spins a tender story of a divorced dad attempting to forge a bond with his 12-year-old daughter. Lewis has custody of Skye on weekends at his cabin in the Oregon woods, where she comes to share Lewis’s love of nature as they fish for trout. He empathizes with her grief and rage over climate change and his divorce from her mother, with whom Skye spends the weeks in Salem, and learns to contend with Skye’s growing pains. The novel takes place over one year in a series of vignettes, each dedicated to one of their weekends together, and it builds to a climactic scene with a wildfire bearing down on the cabin. Though the crisis point feels a bit jarring, the pitch-perfect father-daughter dynamic comes to life on every page, with the sarcastic and spirited Skye playing well off the often-befuddled Lewis. Throughout, Nadelson successfully evokes the peacefulness and wonder of the wilderness setting. Thanks to the affecting family story at its core, this stands out among the recent spate of climate fiction.