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{ "item_title" : "Bear", "item_author" : [" Julia Phillips "], "item_description" : "NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the celebrated author of Disappearing Earth comes a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods--a mesmerizing story about hope, sisterhood, and survival with a truly shocking twist at the end (People, Book of the Week).NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICKA VULTURE AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Thrilling and propulsive, glorious and terrifying. Julia Phillips is a brilliant writer.--Ann PatchettBeautiful and haunting . . . this is brilliant.--Publishers Weekly (starred review) They were sisters and they would last past the end of time. Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can't earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence. Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it's time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the desire to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger. A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us--and within us--Bear is a propulsive, mythical, richly imagined novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/52/552/043/0525520430_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "28.00", "online_price" : "28.00", "our_price" : "28.00", "club_price" : "28.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "28.00" } }
Bear|Julia Phillips
Bear
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Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the celebrated author of Disappearing Earth comes a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods--"a mesmerizing story about hope, sisterhood, and survival with a truly shocking twist at the end" (People, Book of the Week).

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
EDITORS' CHOICE - A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK
A VULTURE AND NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Thrilling and propulsive, glorious and terrifying. Julia Phillips is a brilliant writer."--Ann Patchett

"Beautiful and haunting . . . this is brilliant."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) They were sisters and they would last past the end of time. Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can't earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence. Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it's time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the desire to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger. A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us--and within us--Bear is a propulsive, mythical, richly imagined novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.

Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780525520436
  • ISBN-10: 0525520430
  • Publisher: Hogarth Press
  • Publish Date: June 2024
  • Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.9 pounds
  • Page Count: 304

Related Categories

As Bear by Julia Phillips opens, there’s a wildness that takes over, an immediate sense that control is elusive, that the landscape, not humans, is in charge. On an island in the Pacific Northwest, two sisters—Sam and Elena—spend their days working, caring for their dying mother and imagining future possibilities for their lives. Their routines are measured and predictable.

With limited employment available post-pandemic, Sam works in food service on the ferry to and from the island. She’s startled one day to see a bear swimming off the side—unusual for the area—and she shares the sighting with her sister, Elena. When the bear unexpectedly arrives outside their home, Sam is shocked, terrified; Elena is enchanted, curious. The bear disrupts their equilibrium, introducing questions they’re unsure how to answer. As the novel unfolds, the twin tensions of caring for their mother and of tracking and understanding the bear’s presence push against each other, forcing the sisters’ relationship to change. 

Bear takes light inspiration from the Grimm's fairy tale "Snow White and Rose Red,” but it would feel like a modern fairy tale regardless thanks to its sense of looking for wonder and magic in surroundings, of giving in to surprise and forces beyond one’s imagination in a world that feels hard. There’s a taut energy, a quickness to the language that contrasts the richness of landscape with the intensity of humans struggling in myriad ways to survive, let alone thrive. It’s a novel that asks to be read in a single sitting: it’s short, carefully paced, language-driven. Just as Elena and Sam can’t look away from the bear, it’s hard to look away from this story that unfolds in deft, surprising, unexpected ways. 

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