--- title: The Vaster Wilds: 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 description: Find out why "The Vaster Wilds" by Lauren Groff is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:25:39.650Z og:title: 'The Vaster Wilds' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff209d229962a05/698a41f8929fadab6ebfa55f/TheVasterWilds.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'The Vaster Wilds' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Vaster Wilds' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff209d229962a05/698a41f8929fadab6ebfa55f/TheVasterWilds.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2023 # The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  Over the past 15 years, [Lauren Groff](https://time.com/collection/100-must-read-books-2021/6120596/matrix/) has written about a dead lake monster, a 12th-century mystic, a utopian commune, and more. Now, with her fifth novel, the three-time finalist for the National Book Award is focused on a servant girl in the early 17th century who finds herself lost in the wild. In the dead of night, and the dead of winter, “the girl,” as she is known, escapes a colonial settlement in Virginia. While she has been warned of the monsters, both real and imagined, that live outside the colony’s walls, she faces more immediate threats from within them. Desperate to live, the girl goes to great lengths—roasting baby squirrels, stealing the boots of a dead man—to survive on her own. What _The Vaster Wilds_ makes clear is that even in an inhospitable world, no one is ever truly alone. —_Shannon Carlin_ **Buy Now:** _The Vaster Wilds_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780593418390) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3QMt6n4) --- **Looking for more book recommendations? Sign up for** [**_Worth Your Time_**](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=worth-your-time) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/"},"headline":"The Vaster Wilds","datePublished":"2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:25:39.650Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff209d229962a05/698a41f8929fadab6ebfa55f/TheVasterWilds.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ff209d229962a05/698a41f8929fadab6ebfa55f/TheVasterWilds.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332628/the-vaster-wilds/","name":"The Vaster Wilds"}}]}] ```