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Get startedBear
A Novel
Narrator
Sophie Amoss
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
7 hours 51 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“I love unreliable narrators, and in this novel centered around two sisters and a wayward bear, the narrator is almost delusional. At turns wistful and unsettling, fable-like and of the moment, Bear had me riveted. ”
— Robin • Books Inc.
Bookseller recommendation
“WOW. Just, wow. Bear was so thrilling and unsettling. You'll find yourself yelling at the audiobook during some of the most difficult to read, cringeworthy, and terrifying parts of the book. It's a great look into small-town life run by the tourist industry, where every hard-earned paycheck seems to disappear into a never ending need for money to support Sam and Elena's family.”
— Nadine • Birchbark Books
Summary
From the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth comes a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods—“a mesmerizing story about hope, sisterhood, and survival with a truly shocking twist at the end” (People, Book of the Week).
One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Summer: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, People, Vulture, Elle, Bustle, LitHub, Parade, Publishers Weekly, WBEZ Chicago
“Thrilling and propulsive, glorious and terrifying. Julia Phillips is a brilliant writer.”—Ann Patchett
“Beautiful and haunting . . . this is brilliant.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.
Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.
Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the desire to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.
A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us—and within us—Bear is a propulsive, mythical, richly imagined novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.
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Reviews
“A bold and brilliant modern fable of sisterhood, class, and our relationship to the natural world.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Mythical and enchanting, Phillips’s second novel delves into sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among—and within—us all.”—Oprah Daily (One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2024)
“This mythical novel of obsession, moral reckoning, and aspiration glows with fairy tale magic.”—The Boston Globe
“As in Disappearing Earth, it’s Phillips’ mastery of the world she’s created that firmly roots the reader inside these characters’ psyches—and their story.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Bear may remind readers of Alice Hoffman’s fantasy-flecked novels, and Phillips sprinkles around the fairy dust liberally in some sections. But she’s actually working closer to the realm of Henry James’s ‘Turn of the Screw,’ in which the central character blankets the story with her distorting anxieties.”—The Washington Post
“Julia Phillips has my complete attention.”—Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
“There is something unsettling and uncanny about Julia Phillips’s wondrous second book, less a novel than a fairy tale for the strange times in which we live.”—Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
“Julia Phillips’s rare and marvelous new novel weaves fairy-tale magic into a story of sisterhood, daughterhood, care, and devotion. Building with quiet fury to its astonishing ending, Bear will capture your heart and mind. I read in a state of wonder.”—Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers
“In prose of surpassing beauty, Julia Phillips collapses the boundaries between species, communities, and sisters. Bear is magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking, and humane. It is the most moving, most accomplished work of fiction I’ve read in ages.”—Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
“Intense, moody, fierce, and relentlessly suspenseful, Bear is a modern-day fairy tale about the tenacious bonds and complexities of sisterhood.”—Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls
“In this haunting fable of two sisters determined to steer their own destiny, Julia Phillips evokes the unsettling ways in which the wilder forces of the world around us will never allow us to tame them. I was spellbound.”—Julia Glass, author of Three Junes
“Bear is the brutal cage of the real world and the magical animal within—a book of untamed, glorious, abundant interpretations.”—Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning
“I read Bear in one night and I am speechless.”—Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee
“Bear takes us to a wild, captivating place, just as Phillips did in her debut, Disappearing Earth.”—Bookpage
“Phillips is brilliant at balancing sharply drawn characters with finely woven plot and unnerving atmosphere.”—Lit Hub
“An enchanting modern-day fairy tale set off the coast of Washington State.”—Alta Journal Expand reviews