In his debut novel, Michael O'Donnell conjures a frighteningly plausible national emergency that leaves a father and son stranded in New Hampshire's White Mountains as winter approaches. It's a terse, well-paced story that effectively blends the elements of a classic nature adventure tale with a touching portrait of the loving relationship between a parent and child.
When Doug and his seven-year-old son, Tim, leave their Boston home for a week of late-October hiking along the Presidential Traverse--a chain of peaks that includes 6,288-foot Mount Washington--they can hardly imagine what awaits them in that rugged, beautiful territory. After a routine day on the trail, they learn of an apparent catastrophic cyberattack on U.S. infrastructure that has thrown American society into chaos and cut them off from all communications with the outside world. They find themselves in a physical confrontation against the elements and a psychological battle with isolation, and uncertainty about the crisis that may be unfolding in the cities and towns below.
Once Doug makes the decision not to risk a return to their home, he and Tim have the good fortune to gain access to a well-provisioned trail cabin where they can settle in for the approaching winter. Over the course of several brutally cold and snowy months, their food supply slowly dwindles, and they face an inevitable departure. O'Donnell patiently reveals how the pair are drawn closer together by their mutual need for support. To make their circumstances more poignant, they're still dealing with lingering grief over the death of their wife and mother, Carol, several years earlier. Though he's already an experienced single parent, Doug must adapt those skills to this unusual environment and circumstances. He fashions an educational program for his intellectually agile son and enlists him in a project to construct a desk and stool where he can do his schoolwork.
O'Donnell, who practices law in the Chicago area and who has contributed reviews and essays to publications that include the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, draws on his own experiences hiking in this territory to provide a vivid picture of the region's breathtaking scenery and its omnipresent dangers. He favors a restrained prose style, and carefully balances his story between descriptions of the external tests facing Doug and Tim and a sensitive examination of an interpersonal relationship that is profoundly reshaped by their extended confinement. Above the Fire inevitably will evoke comparisons to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. That's heady company, but O'Donnell demonstrates impressive confidence about meeting that challenge. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: In a concise, fast-paced first novel, a father and his young son battle the elements during an isolated winter in New Hampshire's White Mountains.