'A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he's certain they do not exist in modern times-but from his life in the late 1800s. After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow's life.
'Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he'd been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis's wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can't be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.'
The Ancestor is a hard book to pin down, it has some elements that you could describe as science fiction, or perhaps even fantasy, yet has such a grounded and human story mixed in too. If you were to force me to pick one category to put it into it would have to be speculative fiction, even though that's such a broad term. It's a fantastical book for those who don't normally read that kind of thing, and literary fiction for people used to reading sci-fi. It mixes together so many genre's and styles that I really believe that everyone can pick up and enjoy this book.
The story follows Wyatt, a man frozen through time. Having come to Alaska in the 1890's, searching for gold, something awful happens to him and he becomes frozen in time. He wakes up in modern day, with much of his memories missing, and unsure how he got there. Lost in the wilderness he discovers a pair of hunters and follows them back to town when he sees that one of them looks just like him. He discovers that this man, Travis, shares his surname as well as his face; and Wyatt becomes convinced that he's Travis' ancestor.
Wyatt becomes drawn to Travis and his family, drawn to Travis' wife and son. Seeing his family helps to bring back memories of his own wife and child, and he quickly becomes obsessed with them. When he and Travis finally meet the both of them find something that draws them to the other, and the pair quickly form a friendship.
I won't say much more about the plot and what happens with the two characters, because I don't want to spoil what happens or where the story will take the characters, but I will say that Lee Matthew Goldberg always keeps you on your toes, that he keeps the story shifting and changing right up to the tense conclusion. Even in the final pages I didn't know how the book would end, because he manages to make a narrative that could go more than one way, that doesn't feel predictable or locked on a certain course; which is the sign of an amazing writer.
He also manages to make the world of The Ancestor feel really real and lived in, and all of the characters are interesting. Travis and his immediate family get a big focus, but there are so many characters in the periphery and background that grab you too. Some of the supporting cast in this book are more realised and well written than some lead characters I've read. They have backstory, they have complex motivations, and they feel so real. I'd have been happy to read a book that was twice as long as this to have more time with these characters, or books centred around them that didn't even involve Wyatt and his travel through time. I'm normally aren't drawn to literary fiction as I like to have something a bit more fantastical in the books I read, but the characters here are so engaging I'd be happy to read stories about them just living their lives.
I honestly didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. When I realised that Wyatt's story of travelling through time wasn't going to be as front and centre as I thought, that it would be more about the lives of these people, I was worried that my interest would wane. But I was so wrong. I found everything about it fascinating. I kept reading long past the point I should put my book down and go to bed. This kept me awake way longer than it should have, which I always take as a sign of something special.
If the blurb for this book captures your interest in any way, do yourself a favour and pick it up. Give it a read, because you'll end up being sucked into this amazing story.
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