There is a magic in this storytelling. There is a simplicity in this storytelling. It made me feel relieved that nature in all it’s glory - fish and bears and cougars, and trees and plants and honeybees, survived whatever happened to end humans. A lovely read. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for ARC.

DNF.
Beautiful, rhythmic, and as crystal clear as summit's air, The Bear tells the story of a father and daughter living alone in an idyllic lake/ mountainside existence after every other human has died. The girl often sees a bear near their camp, and wonders if the bear could possibly communicate with humans.
Despite being only around 200 pages, it is so tediously peaceful that it started putting me to sleep about 25% of the way in. I don't really care what happens with the bear because I'm fading out now, but I'm sure it's lovely.

As a side note, the song "K/Half Noise" by Múm was playing in my head as the soundtrack to this book.

This has such a great premise, and sounded exactly like the kind of book I'd love, but I haven't been able to stick with it. The writing is gorgeous, but that combined with the nature setting, at such a slow pace, doesn't work for me. This would be perfect for outdoorsy readers who enjoy slower, atmospheric fiction.

Beautifully written! The narrative is so fantastical yet down to earth, set in a world so distant yet so relatable! I absolutely adored this book!

The Bear by Andrew Krivak is set in a forested area at the base of a mountain. The technical term would be a Subalpine forest. It sounds like a beautiful place. There aren’t any other people besides the dad and his daughter. There seems to have been an end to civilization as we know it. The dad has taken his daughter to a place where they can live off of the land.

The girl is very young – maybe between 8-10. In the beginning of the book, she lives with her father in a cabin. He teaches her everything – how to read, hunt, make bows, etc. By the middle of the book, the girl is alone.

Well, she isn’t exactly alone. The bear keeps her from starving by giving her fish. The girl isn’t an expert hunter yet. She learns quickly otherwise she will starve because the bear goes into hybernation.

There is also a puma who saves her from drowning and catches some food for her. She can hear the bear and the puma talking to her. Were they really talking or was it a hallucination? It doesn’t matter because it got her through life for a little bit longer. Would any of us make it one day in the wilderness? They make it bear-able. Pun intended.

The girl is trying to get back to the cabin but it’s too difficult during the winter. Also, she cannot cross the river yet.

If you like post-apocalyptic stories without zombies, then this could be the book for you.

If you don’t like anything about doomsday prepping, survivalists or nature, then you might not like this book. The Bear really beautifully written so it’s too bad you are missing out because you aren’t into prepping.

FYI: Andrew Krivak the author is not the same Andrew Krivak that recently had a murder conviction overturned. They are different people.

I received an ebook from NetGalley in exchange for doing a review. All opinions are my own. Obviously.
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The Bear is a poignant novella about a young girl and her father in a post-apocalyptic world, and their survival off the land. Neither the girl nor the father or named in the story, nor are there quotation marks when someone is speaking, but somehow it fits in the story. The focus of the story is the bear, and the father and daughter are living in its world.

I enjoyed this bittersweet tale of living off the land. It left me wondering more about the world they live in, such as how the father and daughter became the last people in the world-or, I suppose, that they know of. How much time passed since the apocalypse occurred? These are questions that are not really answered, but also aren’t relevant to the story at hand. It does make one wonder, however.

The Bear is definitely worth a read, especially for fans of books such as My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book as an eARC.

This book combines the elegiac, hauntingly spare prose of Cormac McCarthy's The Road with the vivid nature writing of Jack London, plus a dash of magical realism. It added up to something quite lovely and different from the usual "fall of mankind" tale. The writing is beautifully evocative, through each season and habitat, of the will to survive shared by all living things. I enjoyed this very much and look forward to reading more of Andrew Krivak's work.

I was really hoping for the third book in the Sojourner series when I saw Andrew Krivak’s name pop up. That wasn’t what this was. It was still good - felt a little like Dog Stars without the threat of violence. Short and fast and interesting enough.

The Bear by Andrew Krivak is an easy read about a father and daughter who are the last people in the world. The father is raising his daughter alone in a world in which they coexist with nature and the stories that are passed on though humans and nature. When the daughter finds herself alone in an unfamiliar place a bear teaches her about survival and how the stories of the world are passed on through trees and animals. The girls survival in the wilderness reminded me of Jean M. Auel's "The Clan of the Cave Bear" with how she has to create weapons and tools to survive the harsh winter in a cave far from home.
The Bear is a beautifully written book that brings to mind stories of Native American folklore and magic.

With over 100 reviews for this already out there, I'll just say that this is a nice, simple story. I've not come across dystopian fable, and that's partly what it is, and is a little difficult to characterize. I guess I'd call it literature since it's pretty slow paced and thoughtful but engaging. Recommended.

Thank you for the ARC for review!!

The Bear completely captivated me from beginning to end. Krivak introduces a world in which there is but one man and his daughter left on earth, both who remain unnamed throughout the story. The man, a widower, dotes on his daughter and teaches her everything he can about survival. At the tender age of five, she learns about what happened to her mother, and how her father expressed his grief. Then, as the young girl ages and learns to hunt, she starts to understand about death, grief, and survival.

At twelve, the girl and her father journey to the ocean on foot. As they journey through the wilderness, of which both are comfortable in, they come across the ruins of homesteads. Here, the girl's father encounters something mysterious that changes not only the course of their journey, but the girl's life entirely. Soon, the girl must find a way to survive and head home alone, taking with her only the knowledge she's gained from her father and the aid of a lone bear.

Krivak mixes fable with dystopia to create this gorgeous, poetic prose reminiscent of Native American folklore. Without giving too much away, there is also such emotion and wisdom in the writing. I highlighted many passages, each thoughtful and observant. As a nature girl myself, the setting's description and hunting narrations transported me into woods, feeling the senses of a hunter- the peeled eyes, the ears listening, the body fighting the elements. Krivak also gives life to a desolate, lonely place through the spirits of the animals, wind, and natural structures.

Honestly, if you love folklore, hunting, nature, or a great story, you'll want to grab a copy of this book. 

*This review will be posted on Feb. 16th, 2020 on my blog, www.thelexingtonbookie.com.*

A beautiful story!
A young girl and her father are the last remaining humans.
They live in a post apocalyptic world in the shadow of a lone mountain..where nature is full of animals and vegetation.
The father teaches the daughter how to make hunting tools and how to hunt.. how to make clothing and food. He tells her the the secrets of the seasons and the stars and tells her stories about her mother who passed soon after the girls birth.
After some years pass, the girl is alone in an unknown landscape, and a bear will lead her home.
There is a lot more to the story especially in regards to nature and animal friends. Just lovely!

Thank you to Bellevue Literary Press via Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A bit slow. I just couldn't get invested. I feel like there just was no plot. I feel bad because it had the potential to be beautifully written. DNF'd at 40%

Andrew Krivak’s latest novel, The Bear, is rather unusual. While it is ostensibly set in the future, it could very well also be set at the beginning of time in some regards. It’s the story of the very last humans on the planet, a father and his daughter, who interact in nature in ways that resemble the storytelling of indigenous peoples. That’s what makes it so unrooted in a specific time and place. Of course, we are never told why they are the last human beings on the planet. Was it the cause of a virus or some deadly plague? Readers of this book will never know. But that’s not a short falling. In many ways, it is meant to play out as though this is a story that could have been handed down from generation to generation, something that’s as old and universal as time itself. It’s the story about survival, if not the unmaking of creation, much as it is about creation itself.

The man and his daughter are never named in this book. They live in a house in the woods where the father teaches his daughter survival skills as she grows up. Each summer solstice, they visit the place on a nearby mountain where the daughter’s mother is buried — the mother having succumbed to the pressures of childbirth a few months after the daughter was born. Then, one day, when the daughter is 12, the two set out for the coast of the ocean to gather saltwater in which they can make salt. I don’t want to give too much away, since this is a short novel, but tragedy strikes and the sole remaining human is left to cope with surviving and returning the ashes of the fallen to the mountain where the mother is buried. However, winter is rapidly closing in, to which the sole remaining human takes comfort and wisdom from a talking bear this person crosses paths with. More about the talking bear later.

As you can tell, this is a deeply melancholic book — one that’s about mourning and death, but also the struggle to persevere in the face of that. What we get is essentially a survival tale: a catalogue to survive a long and deadly winter. The Bear, however, is never boring. We feel invested in this character, simply because this is the last person we have left. All that remains to be seen is, if this person should survive, what future is in store for him or her? Will the days pass in loneliness, missing the presence of the other who has perished? Will the days be full of hunting and gathering, and making themselves useful as the sole human inhabitant of the earth? And what about the talking bear? What will become of them?

You may be bracing at the mention of a talking bear, wondering what kind of child’s story is this? Well, I can say that the novel is less science fiction (though perhaps it is in a dystopian kind of way) and more folk tale and fable, culled from the wisdom of ancestors. My church tells these kinds of stories all the time: how a seagull is tricked into releasing light into the universe that it holds in a box, for instance. That’s what makes The Bear remarkable. This is the type of tale that feels culled from the ancient, not from the futuristic. Plus, this isn’t a story about one attempting to overcome what has wiped out the rest of humanity, set in the dying days of a plague. By the point of this novel’s start, humanity is long gone. There is the odd hint that there may be others out there, but The Bear doesn’t go there. This is all that is left, and what is left must cope with an intense sense of grief and sorrow.

Needless to say, I was quite enamoured by this enhancing work of fiction. Krivak has obviously spent some time in the forest, because his survival narrative seems true and factual. That makes the more outlandish elements of the work seem grounded. I’ll bet that not once will you marvel at how Krivak makes a talking bear seem so realistic and true to life. Nature being able to talk is treated as simply as an art we humans have long lost in our quest to dominate and tame it. That makes The Bear a bit of an environmentalist story. It has a deep-seated sense of wisdom, but it also has heart, too. You long for the character to not just survive but make it home, though you won’t know precisely what they’re going home to with the loss of the other. It’s been a long time since I turned the last page of a book (electronically, in this case, as it was a NetGalley download) and felt such a profound sense of melancholy for ending a book. And the book’s not a long one: I read it in a couple of hours, making me wonder if it’s more a novella than a proper novel. Nevertheless, The Bear is an exhilarating experience that I know I won’t easily forget.

To that end, I would really recommend going and checking this book out. I’m not entirely sure what it’s doing with a small, literary press, because this story is so universal and so good that it deserves a much broader and wider audience. This is the type of book whose story is so relatively approachable and marketable that it deserves to be read by all. In fact, it kind of reminded me of The Old Man and the Sea in some ways, not only just in terms of length, that I have to wonder at what types of literary awards this book is going to be lavished with. I hope there’s a big one or two because The Bear is truly something worth savouring from an author I’d like to hear more from. Andrew Krivak is truly one to watch, and The Bear just seals the deal on that sentiment. This is an excellent read, bar none, and you should treat yourself to it. It’s a marvel and is, quite simply, marvelous.

*****netgalley read*****
I had no idea what to expect from this book. From the blurb it seemed like another post-apocalyptic/dystopian story.

Father and his daughter seem to be the only two people left on earth. They live off the land, with only what they need and can find and hunt to survive. Father teaches his daughter how to survive, what she needs to know to live. Also educating her on reading and writing with what he has found left over from long ago. Tells her stories of before, especially of her mother, a mother she does not know.

They set off to see the ocean and then the girl finds her self alone. She has to figure out how to get back home and survive all while coping with loss and loneliness.

At first this took me a while to really get into the story. I came to appreciate that the father and daughter were nameless, for me it helped me to connect with the girls feelings of how she dealt with everything. Leaving everyone and every place nameless made you pay attention to details and try and find the places, so beautiful described, in a mental map in your head.

I’m so glad this was not just another post-apocalyptic/dystopian story

There is no one left on Earth except a girl and her father in this dream like tale. The girl and her father journey to the ocean to gather supplies. During this journey, the girl finds herself alone and a long way from home. A bear appears to help her on her journey and teaches her many things.

This book was just okay to me and I found myself quite bored.

I received a reviewer copy of The Bear by Andrew Krivak from Bellevue Literary Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Bear
By Andrew Krivak

ANDREW KRIVAK YOU ARE AN AMAZING WRITER OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!
After reading, "THE SIGNAL FLAME," and absolutely loving it for its gorgeous prose and the telling of a fabulous story with some gentle characters. You can only imagine how excited that I was to be approved for an eARC and receiving it this morning after I requested it only last night. "THE BEAR," was pure poetry, a loving ballad of mortality, the planet with its beautiful landscapes of nature, of the love we feel for our families, the love that we feel for the lushness of the flora and fauna. There is so much to admire and appreciate about Andrew Krivak's latest well crafted novel called, "THE BEAR." The first few beginning pages took my breath away in its spare imagery and poetic language. I felt like I was inside the story hovering above these lovely characters both human and animal..

I devoured this beautiful fable in one short sitting and could feel the love that this father felt for his daughter in the way he gave her a gift every year of her birthday on my favorite day of the year also---the Summer solstice, June 21, the longest day of the year. His gifts signified some very meaningful things. He honored his late wife and daughter by teaching her how to make things to survive and always with respect for the land and animals. This novel refreshes me on this dreary winter day like the restorative peace I feel out in nature by myself with the glowing warmth of the sunshine's energy. The evanescence of the simplicity with which father and daughter live appreciating and honoring their sources of food and they don't waste part of the wild whether it be animal, plant or fish.

I felt a sense of overwhelming grief when the daughter tells her father not to go down into the depths of the earth and I can only imagine what bit him as they make their way to the ocean to collect salt. I knew he was not going to be able to make the journey back with her and I was so very sad. I found the stories within this story to be enchanting. I felt such an overwhelming wave of emotions when she meets the bear and puma, but especially her musings with the bear. I loved the magical realism of the bear explaining to her how every single form of life including him expressing how every single form of life communicates and how the trees hold the everlasting memories that whisper tales of life of all of earth's species. This fantastic fable had a bittersweet ending that only left me wanting more because I enjoyed this so much. I was truly bereft to realize that I was reading the the last written prose but ultimately hopeful because I know that I can read it again and again..

With the warmest thanks to Net Galley, the talented beyond words Andrew Krivak and Bellevue publishing for generously sharing their eARC with me in exchange for a fair and honest review. There is so much more praise I could give this novel and Mr. Krivak and you all. It is easy with such a favorite author to want to share such a masterpiece with the Hope's that this book gets all of the recognition it deserves.

Publication date February 20, 2020

#NetGalley #AndrewKrivak #TheBear #BellevuePublishing

A fable, an ominous tale for the human race, one that leaves us not knowing what the thing was that spares the beauty and bounty of nature, but no human beings save for a man and his young daughter. The beautiful writing and a story that held me, had me reading this in one day. I wasn’t surprised. I loved both of Krivak’s other novels. It’s taken me some time to write a review because I didn’t want to give too much away and still do justice to this story.

In this novel there are amazingly beautiful descriptions of nature, touching tales of animals, stories that the girl’s father tells her of her mother, a story of a bear that saved a village, a story of a care giving puma. Tales and stories and lessons are told that will stay with the girl for the rest of her life. We don’t know when or where the story takes places and we don’t know their names. I’m usually left feeling detached from characters when they are not given names, but in this case I could not have been more emotionally involved with the man and his daughter. I felt them in their moments of pain and sadness and grief and in their moments of joy and relief. The care and love her father gives her teaching her to hunt, to fish, to make a bow and arrows, to survive by herself for the time when he is no longer with her melted my heart. It’s a joy to her and to the reader, when he teaches her to read. It was achingly sad, but at the same time beautiful when he takes her to the mountain where her mother’s remains are buried for the first time.

This is a short book and I wanted there to be more of the story before that last chapter beautiful chapter. I won’t say much about the plot because you really have to experience this yourself. I’ll just say that this book is about a journey, a journey of survival, of instinct, of the desire to pay honor to a loved one, full of love and loss, joy and sadness, a journey of life. This is one of those books that will remain with me for its beauty and it’s significance.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Bellevue Literary Press through NetGalley.

In The Bear, Andrew Krivak weaves a hauntingly beautiful novel of elegant simplicity, visually rich and unforgettable. The story of a girl and her father surviving alone in a wilderness becomes a fable, a testament to familial love, and a portrait of humankind's place in the world.

This is a novel that entered my dreams, strangely offering a sense of peace and a feeling of oneness with the natural world. Strange because this is also a dystopian novel set in a future when mankind has disappeared and his civilization has crumbled, reverted to its basic elements.

These two remaining live an idealized oneness with nature. They have some antiques--a glass window, some moldering books, a silver comb, singular heirlooms of another time. The father teaches his daughter how to fish and hunt, how to turn animal fur into clothing and blankets, how to sew shoes from leather and sinew. They drink pine needle tea and gather nuts. The weeds we heedlessly poison become their salad. The maple helicopters that we curse when cleaning the gutters are their survival food.

What a long way we have come, we humans with our large brains and big dreams and greedy appetites! I look about my yard and neighborhood and understand suddenly the plenty that surrounds me. Not just my father's apple trees that bore thousands of fruit this year, but the maple trees and the oaks down the road. Not just my raised bed of chard and kale but the weeds I diligently pull up one by one.

Krivak's heroine is aided by her totem animal, the bear whose profile is seen in the mountain where her mother's bones rest. With winter, he sleeps and the girl is aided by a puma. These magical creatures feel a kinship--a kinship humanity has rarely returned.

Oh, no, we are to conquer and subdue and use and abuse!

But what has that gotten us?--Decimation of species, destruction of the environment, pollution that poisons us, alienation.

The gorgeous style of Krivak's writing, his story of survival and death that somehow brings a sense of peace, the love and respect shown by his characters, the themes eternal and crucial, earmark this as a must-read novel.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is unbiased and fair.

The Bear is one of those stories that quietly takes hold of you. It somehow captured a pensive and introspective mood. The writing was lyrical and the imagery was beautiful.
It is definitely a book that will stick with me.
If you are bored by slow-build pacing and need lightning-fast pacing, this book is not for you.

Overall, I quite enjoyed it and thought the writing was great.
Thank you to Bellevue Literary Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.