Into the Forest
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Into the Forest Audible Audiobook – Abridged

Jean Hegland (Author), Alison Elliot (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,671 ratings
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Now a major motion picture

Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home.

Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found.

The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other.

Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.

Praise for Into the Forest

“[A] beautifully written and often profoundly moving novel.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“A work of extraordinary power, insight and lyricism, Into the Forest is both an urgent warning and a passionate celebration of life and love.” (Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade)

“From the first page, the sense of crisis and the lucid, honest voice of the....narrator pull the reader in....A truly admirable addition to a genre defined by the very high standards of George Orwell's 1984.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))

“Beautifully written.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“This beautifully written story captures the essential nature of the sister bond: the fierce struggle to be true to one’s own self, only to learn that true strength comes from what they are able to share together.” (Carol Saline, co-author of Sisters)

“Jean Hegland’s sense of character is firm, warm, and wise...[A] fine first novel.” (John Keeble, author of Yellowfish)

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    5 hours and 35 minutes
  2. Author
    Jean Hegland
  3. Narrator
    Alison Elliot
  4. Audible release date
    December 15, 1999
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B000054538
  8. Version
    Abridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
Next page

Product details

Listening Length 5 hours and 35 minutes
Author Jean Hegland
Narrator Alison Elliot
Audible.com Release Date December 15, 1999
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Abridged
Language English
ASIN B000054538
Best Sellers Rank #334,647 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#25,624 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
#112,826 in Literature & Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,671 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Steve Patchin
5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and Soul-Touching
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2023
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Into the Forest is a beautiful, lyrical, and insightful novel about discovering humanity's connection to nature because of an apocalypse. It's heart-breaking and human as it dives into the lives of two sisters who are trying to survive after civilization ends. The writing is literary rather than genre-based. Although the novel is technically science fiction, post-apocalyptic SF, I don't think the SF moniker fits it properly. This is high-level literature.

Normally, I don't care to comment about other reviews, but in this case, I feel I should. So many of the complaints seem to reveal more about the writers of the reviews than they do about the novel, itself. People are upset about certain things that bother their moral beliefs, and because of this, can't see that the actions of the characters are psychologically sound. There are legitimate reasons for the things they do and the conclusions they draw. Personally, I don't care for some of the feminist themes, but they are fully justified in the context of this story and these characters. I do not let that get in my way of feeling and understanding what this novel offers. I do not believe that the characters' points of view represent a general condemnation of men, even if that was the intent of the author. And really, I don't know the intent of the author in that regard. I take what the characters think and do as specific to their circumstances, and I find the circumstances believable. So, I am glad that I was able to enjoy this novel for what it offers, rather than have my own baggage interfere with it.

I'm glad I read it, and I feel it contributes to my growth as a person.
3 people found this helpful
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Lainey Larkin
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written but...
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2016
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3.75 stars. This book gets its additional star solely on the author's lyrical prose. The imagery is so vivid I can almost smell the forest. Excellent writing! As for the story itself, I enjoyed watching the characters come to realize that modern civilization wasn’t the only way to live. At first viewing the forest as an alien place, the sisters eventually woke up to the fact that mother nature contained everything they would need in order to survive. Watching this was cool, like a voyage of discovery. Additionally, I found the troubled relationship between the sisters believable. Close as children, they grew apart in their early teens years, and their struggle to survive and to adjust to this new way of life made these differences even more evident. That’s how life works, right? But I found the interplay between these two characters disturbing. Depressing, even. It also bothered me that they turned their backs on humanity entirely. They wrapped themselves in solitude for comfort rather than nurturing friendships and building trust with others. The girls could have shared the knowledge they gained, helped scores of people to survive the way they did, and in doing so they could have built a community that could mutually support and defend. This story also contained a strong anti-male sentiment. This left me with a sour stomach. Man is no more evil than woman, and there can still be civilization without electricity, if only you foster and nurture it. All in all, I’m not sorry I read it, but I’m left with an emptiness that I can’t shake.
4 people found this helpful
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Judy M. Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars Into the Forest is a Goodread
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
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 Set in an isolated part of Northern California's redwood forest, Jean Hegland's novel unwinds as the world as we know it falls into entropy. The horrific challenges these people endured and how they were tempered by the fire of their circumstances moved me and kept me turning each page with eagerness.

Jean Hegland paints a dystopian landscape that is painfully close to reality. She creates a strong foundation and builds out the rooms of this story, brick by brick. Her use of language is reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's, yet distinctly her own creation.

Relationships are tested, twisted and nearly broken apart, only to heal and become stronger. At its core, it is a story about the love the grows out of the hearts and minds of one family, embodied most clearly in the relationship between the two sisters, Nell, and Eva. They live with their father and free-spirited mother on an isolated farm in a fictionalized location the redwoods of Northern California.

I reveled in the details and patience with which she painted this world. A strong connection to nature permeates the story. The rhythm of her language flows like a strong clear stream. She deftly amplifies the emotional landscape within Nell and Eva contrasting it with their external reality, seasonal transformations that offered bounty and danger in equal measure.

These are unique, smart, quirky people. Each has gifts and blind spots. Through it all, they are enmeshed with each other like the roots of the forest trees and plants that surround them.

It is a coming of age tale of survival. The principal characters are far from perfect. They stumble as they learn how to exist in a world where nothing comes easily except for being true to their innermost selves.

I ached with pain as I read each new struggle. I laughed and wept as the two typical teenage girls discover boys and who they are meant to be. Their lives are turned inside out and yet they find a way to do more than simply exist. These girls are resourceful at times, frightened, and always real.

I could imagine myself in their world where technology and civilization as we know it disintegrates.

It is a well-told tale and left me wanting more.
14 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Shelagh Howell
5.0 out of 5 stars Like whoa
Reviewed in Canada on September 3, 2021
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That was a joy to read. It touched on all the things I love to read in an apocalypse novel from the slow decline of society to the survival of those remaining. Wonderful. And not too dark👌
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AngieLD
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful !
Reviewed in France on August 5, 2020
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Into the forest est un roman dystopique magnifiquement bien écrit qui prend place dans notre monde actuel, ce qui le rend très réaliste et d'autant plus accrocheur. A travers l'histoire de ces deux soeurs seules au monde, c'est notre propre histoire que l'on questionne : faut-il pleurer le passé ou vivre dans le présent ? A lire !!!
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Ann Fairweather
5.0 out of 5 stars The best of dystopian!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2020
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This is an incredibly beautiful book. The perfect story really. Not in a very long time did I enjoy reading a novel so much. It probably was written for me! It might not be very thick but it feels like it covers eons. At first we have a regular family, father mother and two sisters, living in a house in the woods some 30 miles from the nearest town. Everything is then happy and perfect. But later the mother, an ex-ballerina, dies of cancer. With a heavy heart, the reduced family carries on at best. Eva wants to be a ballerina too and talented, she trains to join the San Francisco ballet. Nell is more academic and prepares her exams for Harvard. Then disaster strucks. We never know exactly what happens, nor do the characters, because life as we know it quickly falls apart. Wars, riots, famine, new flu disease (How prescient was this written in 1996!!) and soon the supplies are short and people dies. After the last ominous trip to a now ghost town where supplie are gone, father and daughters have to make do in their forest house as best as they can. There’s no more contact with the world, no electricity, no internet, no radio. Their only neighbours 10 miles away have gone and their house is left derelict. At first they manage well in their autonomy. The girls are 16 and 17 and the three of them survive well enough...But I won’t tell the story further as it is gripping and best left to discover.
Reading it in a time of pandemic and threats to our world on all sides, it could not have been more topical but also offers a wonderful way out too.
I cannot recommend this book enough and having seen the film version of it, can only say forget the film, read the book!
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Massi Albano
5.0 out of 5 stars why did not anyone translate it in Italian?
Reviewed in Italy on September 17, 2017
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Great book! I have a lot of memories, connected to that book. Please translate it in italian. Brava brava brava
One person found this helpful
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Bert
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant storytelling
Reviewed in Germany on November 19, 2017
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I’ve seen the movie and knew that I had to read the book. The movie was really great and I liked that the story in the book was almost the same only a little bit more elaborate.

Thinking about a possible future where there is no civilization and where survival is not easy I’m awed at what the main characters in the book Nell and Eva were able to accomplish. It’s a captivating story Nell tells us and it gives me something to think about.

Isn’t that what good stories should do?
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