Forget the forgetting. We seek to forget ourselves, to be surprised and to do something without knowing how or why. The way of life is wonderful. It is by abandonment.

This is not an easy book to read. It’s about a father who is obviously suffering from an extreme form of PTSD, who has removed his daughter from foster care and taken her to ’live wild’ in a nature preserve. He’s hyper paranoid that they are being watched, and teaches Caroline how to leave no trace of her movements.

As I read this book, all I could think about was how was this girl ever going to recover from this trauma. I thought the story was going to be more about returning to nature and turning their backs on a consumerist society, but it’s really about a very damaged man, who’s love for his daughter is very disturbing.

I believe it’s based on a true incident in Portland, Oregon - although no-one knows what happened to the father and daughter, so the author has made up the ending. I didn’t like the ending at all - it’s so obviously contrived.