GONE FERAL Tracking My Dad Through the Wild

Novella Carpenter’s memoir explores her relationship with her estranged father, a hippie who lives on his own terms off the grid in the forests of Idaho. Narrator Soneela Nankani captures Carpenter’s complex emotions as she struggles to come to terms with her father’s decision to remain absent from his daughters’ lives. Nankani’s performance is subtle and graceful as Novella moves from romantic idealism to anger and to acceptance, finally realizing that the man she hardly knows has shaped her life immensely. Nankani’s reading is thoroughly engaged as Novella shares intimate details about her family life, for example, the conception and birth of her daughter and the realities of trying to live sustainably on her own terms on an urban farm. M.M.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2014]