The Mountain Story is a whopping great adventure tale, but it is much more than that. It is an epic family drama in the mould of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which served as Lori’s inspiration. The novel is a result of Lori’s discovery of and immersion in the raw rural California landscape, where wilderness and desert stand in close proximity right in her back yard, where she has seen a mountain lion devour a deer, where coyotes and other critters prowl, and where wildfires rage just down the road. Her house is built on land where another house once stood before it was burned to the ground.

The novel is set on a mountain outside Palm Springs. Travelling up on the cable car from city to mountainside is akin to moving “from the climate of Mexico to the climate of Alaska in about fifteen minutes.” The mountain is easy to get lost on – Lori has done it. You can always see the desert city below, but you cannot find your way down to it.

The Mountain Story is told by Wolf Truly, who on his eighteenth birthday got lost withthree women for five days in the mountain wilderness just outside Palm Springs. Now an adult and a father, Wolf is writing this account of what really happened on the mountain for his son Danny, who has just started college. Wolf realizes that he owes his son the truth, for reasons that become clear in a shocking revelation at the end of the novel.

Wolf had a rough youth, losing his mum when he was four, and being brought up by a dad who was more interested in the next conquest or bottle of scotch than in his son. Wolf has gone up the mountain to kill himself on the anniversary of the day his best friend, Byrd, had a tragic accident on the mountain, which had been the boys’ paradise and escape.

Wolf meets the three women on the cable car on the way up, and through wonderfully plotted misadventure, the women end up lost and stranded.

They can see the desert city below but cannot find their way down to it from the forested cliffs. Wolf goes from wanting to kill himself to wanting all of them to survive, through five days of hope and loss and injury and hypothermia and incredible self-revelation on the part of all four. Only three of them come down the mountain alive.

Tense and gripping, The Mountain Story includes sex, death, deep emotion, and sacrifice. It’s more than an adventure story, but it is a highly dramatic adventure story, as well as a revealing examination of family dynamics.       

PRAISE FOR LORI LANSENS' THE MOUNTAIN STORY

“A superbly crafted, tension-filled tale.” — NOW Magazine

“Right from its opening pages, The Mountain Story has you firmly in its grip. Immensely readable, beautifully written and incredibly heart-breaking… it’s an extraordinary story of survival, heroism and redemption that will stay with you long after you read the last page.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS, UK

“By its closing pages, it gains an almost devastating emotional force that accompanies the irresistible quality of its narrative drive: It’s a master class in fiction and its potential.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL

“Poignant and heartbreaking, this book rivets with its examination of what the body and soul need to stay alive.” — MACLEAN'S

“Lansens adeptly takes her characters from despair to hope and back again, portioning out any number of surprises along the way. … The mountain is unforgiving and every misstep could lead to death. But whose? With such a thrilling premise and clever treatment, who wouldn’t want to go along on the outing?” — NATIONAL POST

“As in her earlier novels, Lansens (The Wife’s Tale, 2010) portrays strong, not-soon forgotten characters in this suspenseful, psychologically rich tale…Lansens brings the reader intimately into their plight: four harrowing days with barely any food or water, trapped in a canyon with seemingly no way down. Their ordeal profoundly affects the four survivors and changes the course of each of their lives.” — BOOKLIST

“Lansens has written a colorful, adventurous wilderness survival novel.... [a] first-rate character-driven thriller.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Her newest offering is more than just a survival tale. It is a story of friendship and loss, but also of growth and hope, and of family bonds that can either tie us down or help us soar. A great read for anyone who likes character-driven, coming-of-age stories with exquisitely described natural settings.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL

“With her new novel, Lori Lansens, the bestselling author of The Girls, may have reached the peak of story-telling prowess. The Mountain Story is a fast-paced and profound adventure that demands to be read in a single sitting… The Mountain Story is the best kind of binge read: exhilarating, inspiring, and life-affirming.” — QUILL & QUIRE, starred review

“Like a luge ride- you hop on with 3 generations of women and don’t breathe until you arrive at the end. A carefully plotted, smart and funny novel about hanging on for dear life. ”  — KATHERINE GOVIER, author of The Ghost Brush and Three Views of Crystal Water

“The Mountain Story is an expertly crafted novel about how ordinary lives can be changed by an extraordinary mountain. If climbing speaks to how we can find truth and beauty in hardship, Lansens shows that it is also a way to see inside our souls. I loved this novel.”  — CLAIRE CAMERON, author of The Bear