A child of the Air Force, Karen Auvinen was torn from one home to another, learning not to get too attached. Nearing forty, she settles down to write in an isolated cabin in the Rockies, full of the beautiful artifacts she has collected throughout her life: a priceless collection of over three-hundred cookbooks (of which many are out of print), a gorgeous farm table made of oak, and her great-grandmother’s nineteenth-century Finnish confirmation bible. While she’s delivering mail along her rural route in the mountains, her cast iron stove burns her home down, leaving nothing but a frying pan, a mug, and the ashes of her incinerated poetry floating through the air “haunting the landscape.”

In “Rough Beauty,” Auvinen examines her life’s journey to the point of the fire while beginning a new adventure that rebuilds her life, reconciles with her past, and even finds love. Recording forty seasons of living at 8,500 feet alone (save for her beloved husky, Elvis), Auvinen lets readers experience the joy of deep winter’s silence, the beauty of walking through the thawing grasslands in spring, and the thrill of waking up to a brown bear tapping at your door.

Gorgeous and hypnotic, “Rough Beauty” is a book that will inspire readers to look outside their comfort zone to seek the unknown, both inward and in the great outdoors.