Rewilding, The: a novel

Abstract

The Rewilding explores the social, political, and environmental history of Yellowstone as a place—the national park, the ecosystem, and the human community—and examines the ways in which that history of place intersects with cultural definitions of nature, cultural values assigned to nature, and human relationships with the natural world. The primary narrative follows the story of a young woman named Wren who, after discovering that her suburban, upper-middle class upbringing has inadequately prepared her for a conventional career path, decides to take a road trip to the west coast after she graduates from college. Along the way, she meets Millie, a woman with whom she falls into an instant infatuation and who convinces her to abandon her original plan and join her for a summer-long stint in Gardiner, Montana. Wren and Millie camp among whitewater rafting guides and start a campaign to save the gray wolves, who are in danger of being removed from the endangered species list. In different and overlapping ways, Millie and Wren struggle to navigate the landscapes of queerness, sexual autonomy, river-running, respect, tolerance, social power and ultimately, belonging. One of the fundamental questions at hand in the novel is: what makes a person (human and nonhuman) fit into a landscape, and how can the presence of that person change the landscape? What is the value of those changes, and who gets to decide?