Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
In early March 2020, just before the pandemic shut down travel, Alaskan author Eowyn Ivey visited Bellingham to share her book “To the Bright Edge of the World” as that year’s Whatcom Reads featured author. Now, five years later, fans of Ivey’s work have a new Alaskan novel to enjoy.
“Black Woods, Blue Sky” tells the story of Birdie, a young, single mom living and working at the Wolverine Lodge in a remote Alaskan town along the Wolverine River. Nightlife at the lodge tends to get wild and Birdie is often swept up in it, leaving her 6-year-old daughter Emaleen home alone at night and frequently nursing morning hangovers.
Big-hearted Della, the Wolverine owner, has a soft place in her heart for Emaleen and after one particularly wild night, Della moves Birdie to the day shift so Emaleen can come to work with her.
Birdie finds Arthur, a soft-spoken bear of a man who begins dropping by the Wolverine in the morning for chamomile tea, intriguing; Arthur lives in a remote cabin in the mountains and is only rarely seen in town. As Birdie’s interest in Arthur grows, the idea of a simpler life, living close to nature, takes root.
In a leap of faith, Birdie and Emaleen move into Arthur’s cabin with him, flown there by Arthur’s father who has a small bush plane. When they arrive, however, they find the cabin in an unusual state of disrepair, with the windows boarded up, the floor covered with leaves and twigs, and no food in the kitchen.
Undeterred, Birdie sets about cleaning and making the space livable and they embrace the freedom of long summer days spent outdoors. Arthur is sometimes gone for days at a time and has other odd habits like never sharing meals with them, but Birdie is so grateful for their newfound freedom that she doesn’t question his odd habits. When Arthur is gone, she revels in her independence, hauling water from the creek, chopping wood and carrying her rifle to protect them from bears whenever they venture away from the cabin.
As signs of impending winter increase and Arthur’s absences grow longer, Birdie begins to question where he goes and how they will make it through the winter without the support of the regular food deliveries provided by Arthur’s father. Arthur clearly loves her, but is he who he says he is?
Because Ivey gradually introduces Arthur’s backstory and questions about Arthur’s true nature, the story has a haunting feel and readers will find themselves compulsively reading just one more chapter to find out what happens.
Like her debut novel, “The Snow Child,” this story also explores themes of wildness, isolation, and chosen family. In what Ivey describes as a love letter to the Alaskan wilderness she calls home and her most autobiographical novel yet, “Black Woods, Blue Sky” explores how love can change and possibly free us, although it might mean leaving a part of ourselves behind.
Lisa Gresham is the collection services manager for the Whatcom County Library System, wcls.org.
(Originally published in Cascadia Daily News, Sunday, March 16, 2025.)