Erin A. Craig
At a glance
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Child comes an irresistible blend of dark fairytale and romantic fantasy. The town of Mistaken has a secret…and it’s up to one woman to uncover the truth, confront her past, and save the man she loves.
Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious lumber merchant, the village is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence: the Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever.
Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Determined to rescue Ellis, she figures out a way to defy Mistaken’s curse and begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But there, Greer is hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding and her own origins.
Playfully drawing from Scottish folklore, Erin A. Craig’s adult debut is both a deeply atmospheric and profoundly romantic exploration of freedom versus security: a stunning celebration of one woman’s relentless bravery on a quest to reclaim her lost love—and seize her own future.
"Wonderous and haunting. A mystery told by firelight and shadow with all of the heart, danger, and destiny of our most timeless folktales. Erin A. Craig strikes gold again."
- Marisha Pessl, New York Times bestselling author of Night Film and Darkly
"With all the wit of a classic fable and the dreaminess of a modern romance, A Land So Wide is like the woods themselves: lovely, dark, and deep. I was beguiled by every word."
- Ava Reid, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning
"No one does it like Erin Craig. A Land So Wide is a dark, atmospheric love story that takes you by the hand and leads you straight into a snowy folktale."
- Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of The Hemlock Queen
The voyage began with a whispered secret and a most peculiar piece of wood.
Upon first impression, it was nothing extraordinary. Just a simple cut of log, brought back from an explorer’s journey to the new world. The whole continent was nothing but vast forests, untamed, unclaimed. Lumber was hardly a surprising resource.
But this cut, this tree, was different.
It was not oak or pine.
It was not walnut or cherry or maple or birch.
It wasn’t like anything the man had ever seen.
Impressively strong. Surprisingly flexible. Impossibly light.
Lumber from this tree could be fashioned into the finest fleet of ships ever known. It could create bridges that would span for miles. Houses and buildings and palaces. All would spring up like weeds and last for centuries.
This was a tree that could build an empire.
The man paid the explorer three times.
Once, for the cut itself.
A second time, for the explorer to show the man the exact place he’d found the trees. Together they crossed the sea, then a bay, then a cove. The explorer canoed them deep into the new wilderness, tracing…
Two easy sells for the Aardvark team are a book that (1) is set in Canada and (2) opens with a map. A Land So Wide checks both boxes, with some added bonuses: a reflection on the disturbing landscape of Canadian settler-colonialism, a deep dive into the nuances of mapmaking.
A Land So Wide is a dark gothic fantasy about exploring and charting new territory, which necessarily means it’s about colonization. The novel complicates what it means to be an explorer: to want to investigate the unknown and chart new territory, while brushing up against the reality that you’re not always welcome there—the fictional colony in question is literally called “Mistaken.” All this is tangled up with issues of sexism and classism, a coming-of-age narrative about navigating one’s place in a society built on greed and centuries-old secrets. And then there are the fantasy elements: the Reaping, the Hunt, the Joining ceremony, the Bright-Eyed. We love a book that uses speculative world-building to defamiliarize real-life social issues, and this one’s no exception! Read on if you like books that make you feel lost in the woods, but in the best way.
