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Publication Date: 21 April 2026
Format: Paperback
Extent: 320 pp
Our Price: 10.99
ISBN: 9780857309525
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Publication Date:7 April 2026
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ISBN: 9780857309532
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THE WILDERNESS
Angela Flournoy
* ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR *
An era-defining novel about four women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, from two-time National Book Award longlistee Angela Flournoy.
In 2008, Desiree, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood and of big city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood - overwhelming, mysterious and full of freedom and consequences - swoops in and stays.
Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January's got a relationship with a 'good' man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life.
As these friends transition from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another - amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability and the increasing volatility of modern life.
'Flournoy is singular' - Raven Leilani
'A voice that is expansive yet intimate, humorous yet devastating' - Britt Bennett
This novel contains references to assisted dying and drug use, and depictions of violence and police brutality.
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
READER REVIEWS FOR THE WILDERNESS
PRESS REVIEWS FOR The Wilderness
'Nothing in this exaltingly intelligent novel adheres to our expectations... The book is exquisite in its style and control. Most chapters happen over a few hours, but, in flashbacks, encapsulate lifetimes. Flournoy's use of close third-person to relay each character's perspective is masterful; you never doubt whose head you are in. Moreover, the stream-of-consciousness, while beautifully worded, never gets carried away by lyricism, rooted as it is in the material world... Flournoy has been compared to Toni Morrison, but there's a touch of Virginia Woolf as well'
- The Irish Times
'Flournoy is singular'
- RAVEN LEILANI
'Wonderfully ambitious... Flournoy explores the complexity of friendship, family and home in a voice that is expansive yet intimate, humorous yet devastating'
- BRIT BENNETT
'Flournoy has a long-lens talent, capable of spanning great distances while keeping her characters in crisp, but always compassionate, focus'
- ELEANOR CATTON
'I loved both the seriousness and the humor of this book, the intimacy and poignancy of these friendships and the wise and harrowing examination of our current moment'
- LILY KING (on The Shift 'Books of the Year')
'True friendship can be a refuge, but The Wilderness isn't cozy or tidy in its portrayal of these relationships. Flournoy instead beautifully renders how love - though at times thorny and confusing - is the one thing that keeps us connected'
- TIME (The 100 Must-Read Books of 2025)
'Flournoy inhabits a quartet of shifting perspectives with wit, tenderness and exquisite grace... Transcendent... Flournoy's account of the emotional vicissitudes of friendship and its endurance evokes the hushed, disconsolate quality of [Toni] Morrison'
- NEW YORK TIMES
'The kind of contemporary classic that demonstrates the unshakeable power of chosen family'
- Harper's Bazaar
'Gorgeously written with clear-sighted vision by one of the wisest, most talented authors working today. The Wilderness is a book to get lost in'
- JUSTIN TORRES
'Takes twenty-first-century black womanhood on a wild ride, and just keeps getting wilder. A triumphant whirlwind of a novel'
- NAMWALI SERPELL
'Flournoy has delivered a future classic - the kind of novel that generations to come will read to understand the nuances and peculiarities of this time'
- HARPER'S BAZAAR
'A rangy novel, crisscrossing the continent to trace the fates of five friends... The Wilderness uses social events (recent racial reckonings, the pandemic) as material but has a more seasoned perspective... giving it a wisdom - worn lightly and with humor - on the promise and reality of historic inflection points and how a tightly knit group might respond to them differently'
- VOGUE
'A fascinating look at lasting friendships... Vivid'
- WASHINGTON POST
'A triumph'
- LA TIMES
'An impressive feat'
- VULTURE
'Expansive and intimatE... Flournoy marches away from judgment or other people's dreams in this galvanizing and sustaining portrait of friendship'
- BOSTON GLOBE
'Flournoy's pages radiate with intelligence... A knockout'
- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
'Elegant and unsettling, this novel evades the expected at every turn'
- KIRKUS
AUTHOR LINKS
Harper's Bazaar - The 10 Best Books of 2025
Selected by Barack Obama as one of his Favorite Books of 2025
Angela Flournoy speaks to Sam Baker for The Shift bookclub live
