Into the Wilderness: A Novel

A recently widowed Jewish Democrat from New York and a stubborn Vermont bachelor who has never once voted for a Democrat walk into a friendship — and somehow, neither of them survives it unchanged.

It's 1964, and Rose Mayer is starting over at sixty-four. Uprooted by grief and replanted in the rolling hills of Vermont, she expects solitude, not a sparring partner. Percy Mendell is exactly that — a born-and-bred Vermonter with deep roots, fixed opinions, and absolutely no interest in a woman who challenges everything he thinks he knows. Yet challenge him she does, and he returns the favor with equal enthusiasm.

Set against Vermont's breathtaking seasonal changes and the crackling political tensions of a pivotal election year, *Into the Wilderness* is a witty, warm, and wonderfully human story about two people who are far too old to be this foolish about each other — and wise enough to know it. Rose and Percy clash on politics, culture, and practically every opinion either of them holds dear, but beneath the banter runs something neither expected: real, complicated, late-blooming desire.

This IPPY Gold Medal–winning novel proves that the heart doesn't retire on schedule. Luskin writes with sharp humor and genuine tenderness, crafting a romance that earns every page of its slow burn. For readers who believe the best love stories don't always begin at twenty — and that the most surprising ones might just begin at sixty-four.