FORESTS IN HER MIND

a newsletter from Sam Wilket

We’re nearing the end of summer cottage season in Canada, and I’m lucky to be spending this week by a quiet lake.

It’s the kind of place where you can’t see your neighbours through the surrounding forest, and you can almost imagine you’re the only one here–maybe the only one anywhere.

The isolation is delicious, and sometimes unnerving.

This feeling reminded me of the book I’m recommending this week, a post-apocalyptic story that begins with a woman vacationing in a remote mountain cabin.

- Sam

September 2, 2025

Recommending:

An introspective story of post-apocalyptic survival in a deserted wilderness.

The Wall (1963)

by Marlen Haushofer

translated into English by Shaun Whiteside (1990)

A woman vacationing in the Austrian mountains awakens to find herself alone and cut off from the rest of the world by an invisible wall.

What follows is a quiet, gripping first-person tale, which is at the same time a deeply personal journey, an exploration of the bonds we form with non-human beings, and a critique of modern civilization.

Its slow pace and first person POV isn’t for everyone, but it was for me.

“It occurs to me that I haven’t written down my name. I had almost forgotten it, and that’s how it’s going to stay. No one calls me by that name, so it no longer exists.”

from The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

This newsletter has a sudden urge to take a wilderness survival course. Forward it to someone you'd want with you at the end of the world.

FORESTS IN HER MIND

a newsletter from Sam Wilket

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