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Summary
Summary
--One of the San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Recommended Books of 2015
"Los Angeles is home to many great storytellers, but Nina Revoyr is one of its finest scribes. . . . [Lost Canyon] pulses with both beauty and terror, and the struggles of these characters, their physical and mental reckonings, are enough to make readers sweat without getting off the couch." --Los Angeles Times
"What makes this latest from Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming) more than a suspenseful tale of survival and personal growth is the slowly worked out differences of race and class, well articulated throughout. . . . An absorbing read with good social context." --Library Journal
Four people on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada find more adventure than they ever imagined. They are drawn to the mountains for reasons as diverse as their own lives. Gwen Foster, a counselor for at-risk youth, is struggling with burnout from the demands of her job and with the loss of one of her teens. Real estate agent Oscar Barajas is adjusting to the fall of the housing market and being a single parent. Todd Harris, an attorney, is stuck in a lucrative but unfulfilling career--and in a failing marriage. They are all brought together by their trainer, Tracy Cole, a former athlete with a taste for risky pursuits.
When the hikers start up a pristine mountain trail that hasn't been traveled in years, all they have to guide them is a hand-drawn map of a remote, mysterious place called Lost Canyon. At first, the route past high alpine lakes and under towering, snowcapped peaks offers all the freedom and exhilaration they'd hoped for. But when they stumble onto someone who doesn't want to be found, the group finds itself faced with a series of dangerous conflicts, moral dilemmas, confrontations with nature, and an all-out struggle for survival.
Moving effortlessly between city and wilderness, Lost Canyon explores the ways that race, class, and culture shape experience and perception. It examines the choices good people must face in desperate situations. Set in the grand, wild landscape of California's mountains, Lost Canyon is a story of brewing social tensions and breathtaking adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Author Notes
Nina Revoyr is the author of four previous novels, including The Age of Dreaming , which was nominated for the LA Times Book Prize; Southland , a Los Angeles Times best seller and "Best Book" of 2003; and Wingshooters , which won an Indie Booksellers' Choice Award and was selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of "10 Titles to Pick Up Now." Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles. Lost Canyon is her latest novel.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
When four city-bred Los Angeles yuppies go backpacking in the rugged wilderness of California's Sierra Nevada mountains, their trip turns out to be a nightmare of bad decisions and even worse luck. Revoyr's (Wingshooters) novel is a suspenseful adventure story that explores how people react to danger, uncertainty, fear, and life-or-death choices. Tracy, an aggressive fitness trainer and risk-taking hiking guide, organizes the easy 30-mile hike with three of her clients (who don't know one another). There is Gwen, a counselor of at-risk kids in South L.A.; Oscar, a disgruntled real estate salesman with judgment issues; and Todd, a burned-out lawyer in an unhappy marriage. Tracy is the expert-the others are novices, and their naïve bravado and macho bluster has grave consequences. A forestry glitch changes their hiking route, forcing them to a remote, little-used trail to Lost Canyon. The trek is more arduous than expected and becomes more and more dangerous, culminating in a fateful decision and desperate measures. This is an exciting, page-turning adventure story that reveals how good people can do things totally contrary to their own moral code, and the conclusion will both surprise and satisfy. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Revoyr (Wingshooters, 2011, etc.) sends four Angelenos mired in First World angst to confront the wilds of California's Sierra Nevada range. A more disparate group of left coastals would be hard to assemble. Grieving and near burnout after a promising client's suicide, Gwen counsels troubled Watts youth. Latin-American realtor Oscar rode the housing bubble into BMW-Rolex country and then down to near-bankruptcy. Todd's a Century City attorney, a farm boy-turned-star athlete who married old money. Tracy, their trainer and trek organizer, is an intense woman fascinated by her Japanese-American grandfather's tales of Sierra escapes from Manzanar's internment camp. Weaving in character back stories, Revoyr travels LA's patchwork neighborhoodsdelineating gangs and money, color and prejudiceand nicely sketches "the grand, untamed Sierra," all isolated peaks and frigid waters. While the reluctant partners trust neither their own abilities nor each other's competence, Tracy, "kicked up into a weird, uncomfortable gear," urges them to tackle another trail after officials report fires on their planned route. An old ranger suggests an isolated, near-forgotten trail beyond Owens Valley. As they push past their perceived physical limits, Tracy takes a wrong turn, and the quartet stumbles onto a high-country cartel-run marijuana farm. They're taken prisoner and forced to make hard choicesto cling to civilized morality or to make a brutal but practical decision. Injured, without food, the four forge across wilderness and over a pass two miles up, "the place where storms are made," seeking help, all the while pursued by armed killers. Like Deliverance, a tense and sometimes-violent morality tale formed in the crucible of physical duress. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Four Los Angelenos carefully plan a four-day camping excursion in the Sierra Nevada. Tracy, a super-fit, covertly reckless trainer with a Japanese mother and a mountain-man father is the instigator. Each of the three clients who join her is at an impasse. Gwen, an African American who works for an organization that assists low-income kids (as does the author), is deeply discouraged. Oscar, a Latino real-estate agent, is suffering financial reversals. Todd, a white corporate attorney, is oppressed by work and marriage. Each hopes that the rigors of the hike will be rejuvenating. But weirdly irresponsible advice from a ranger sets them on course for a desperate fight for survival, a classic set-up Revoyr (Wingshooters, 2011), an edgy and spellbinding writer with an uncanny gift for aligning human struggles with nature's glory and perils, infuses with electrifying revelations. The dangers the group faces are legion, from scorching sun to treacherous terrain, injury, bears, and men with guns. Revoyr expertly tracks surges of fear and determination as Gwen, Oscar, and Todd take turns narrating and draw on previously untapped reserves of strength and courage. With ravishing descriptions of the magnificent landscape, unrelenting suspense, incisive psychology, and shrewd perspectives on matters of race and gender, Revoyr has created a gripping tale of unintended adventure and profound transformation.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Attorney Todd Harris, real estate agent Oscar Barajas, and Gwen Foster, a black woman overburdened by a job working with at-risk youth, are brought together by their personal trainer, Tracy Cole, for an adventuresome hike in the Sierra Nevada. Tracy is remarkably blasé when asked whether they'll encounter danger, which they certainly do: they find themselves caught between white supremacists and Mexican drug runners in the wilderness, which certainly pulls together this disparate group. What makes this latest from Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming) more than a suspenseful tale of survival and personal growth is the slowly worked out differences of race and class, well articulated throughout. VERDICT An absorbing read with good social context. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.