Starred review from February 13, 2012
This gorgeously composed novel is a candid and uncompromising meditation on the marriage of a young pilot and his flight-fearing wife, their personal failings, and finding the grace to move beyond unthinkable tragedy. Baart (Beneath the Night Tree) catalogs ample flashbacks with incisive details to develop Danica ("Dani") and Etsell Greene's relationship, making them appear to be the perfect couple: Etsell calls Dani his ground, his center, his home, and she equally worships her "golden boy." In their tenth year of being together, Etsell decides to pick up flights in Alaska, the "place that had been the object of his longing." Shortly thereafter, he and his plane disappear into the Alaskan wilderness, and Dani is forced to come to terms with her fears and grief, as well as the reality of her frayed marriage and the fact that her husband may have been lost to her long before he vanished. Surrounded by a delightful mismatch of the important women in her life, Dani must learn how "to survive in a place between," mired as she is in the unknown: Is her husband dead, or is he simply gone? Baart's mastery of images makes Dani's grief, anger, and self-loathing brilliantly palpable. Pulsing with passion and saturated with lush language, Baart's latest will leave an indelible mark.