In “Burn,” Denver author Peter Heller drops us in a war zone in Maine

If there is a genre for Denver author Peter Heller’s books, I would call it “literary wilderness mystery” or maybe “nature and men and danger.”

His newest novel, “Burn,” released Aug. 13, is just that — a slow burn of a mysterious adventure for two friends, with Maine forests as a backdrop.

Jess and Storey meet up every summer in the remote woods to hunt moose — a yearly ritual between lifelong friends. No phones, no communication with the outside world for days. Meanwhile, the world changes on them and shows up in blown-up bridges and fire-razed towns that they stumble across.

In “Burn,” Maine has violently seceded from the U.S., catching Jess and Storey in the forest between sides trying to survive, or at least figure out what the heck is going on. The plot is political-adjacent but never gets political. When they realize some serious “falcon cannot hear the falconer” action has gone down, Jess says, “It is probably just Maine. Or Republicans versus Democrats. Or the Evangelical South versus the Heathen and Decadent Northeast, Sons of Silence versus Hell’s Angels. Seems like all we can do anymore is pick a fight.”

The novel is not a thriller, but there are elements of terror — namely in how believable and feasible something like a civil war breaking out seems in our starkly polarized world where unprecedented news spews out with breakneck speed.

Jess is the narrator, and the book flashes between his memories (ranging from soulful to somewhat scandalous) and how much of his history and emotion are wrapped up in his friendship with Storey, who has a wife and daughters he’s desperately trying to get to.

Their attempt to get out of what has basically become a war zone gets complicated after they find the 5-year-old daughter of a secessionist, scared and alone. The stakes suddenly get higher for both men, as they continue to traverse the wilderness hiding from people with guns in order to get a child to safety.

In many ways, “Burn” continues threads found in Heller’s previous novels. It’s dystopian (“The Dog Stars”); pivots on male friendships, found families and the moral gray area between being good and being … not so good; and the wilderness is a constant participant. It harkens to “The River,” when two male friends (check), isolated in the wilderness (check) get caught as the world becomes dangerous (check). What was a forest fire in “The River” is a heavily armed and angry militia in “Burn.” It’s hard to say which is scarier or more likely in 2024.  But Jess and Storey in “Burn” are older. Violence and history and heartbreak have already taken their toll.

Heller is masterful at describing the feeling of being surrounded by nature. At one point in “Burn,” I likened the reading experience to sticking my face into the rust-colored bark of a Ponderosa pine to come away with the faintly sweet vanilla scent — something expected and decidedly human sprung from the rocky edges of the wilderness. Coincidentally, at the close of the book, Heller’s Jess does just that to a birch tree (which I learned smells minty).

Either way, you walk away from “Burn” with the forest in your nose and a bit of uneasiness in your gut about the plausibility of things falling apart.

Alison Borden is a freelance writer and staffer at Colorado Public Radio. 

BURN

Author: Peter Heller

Pages: 304

Publisher: Knopf

Book tour dates in Colorado

Tuesday, Aug. 27, 6:30 p.m., at Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St, Boulder

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 6:30 p.m., at Inkberry Books, Cottonwood Shopping Center, 7960 Niwot Road, Suite B‑3, Niwot

Thursday, Aug. 29, 6 p.m., at Bookworm of Edwards, 295 Main St, Edwards