It’s Jake’s birthday. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer’s. As the disease takes hold of him, the key events of his life shift, and what until recently seemed solid fact melts into surreal imaginings. Is his daughter alive or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? There was a cherry tree once, and a yellow dress, but what do they mean? Is there anything he’ll be able to salvage from the wreckage? From the first sentence to the last, The Wilderness holds us in its grip. This is writing of extraordinary power and beauty.