Welcome to Grizzletown, off the grid on the end of the Grizzle Peninsula, Alaska. Once a fishing village with a packing plant or two, by the 1980s it has been cut off to the world by a volcano and indifference.

For disconnected young people living “downland,” the Grizzle Peninsula exerts a powerful pull for people looking to commune with nature, escape a dicey situation, or simply leave civilization behind. Ernie is one such young person, and with his sort of girlfriend Eva, off they go to the wilderness. Soon their relationship is more than strained: Eva seeming stays around for lack of a better plan while Ernie dreams of more than a few ice cold beers.

Chief runs out of luck in the city and needs to get away. Far away. But Chief is the architect of his own problems, and the farther he goes, the more trouble seems to be catching up. On a whim, Danny follows a woman to the Grizzle Peninsula. Theoretically she’s doing some surveying work, but that turns out to be a bust. Luckily, he lands on his feet with a job as a forest service park attendant.

Fiona Gallagher is similarly lost. A crash course in being a game warden seems to offer her direction. Unfortunately, that direction points her to teaming up with Danny and chasing Chief across the Grizzle Peninsula. All five of their fates will be decided in Grizzletown.

Grizzle, Alaska, a location once shrouded in secrecy under classified military restrictions during World War II and beyond, now serves as the intriguing backdrop for the novel Downlanders. This once-isolated spot was made accessible by soldiers constructing a road within the 800-mile wilderness which remained unknown to the public until 1983 when Grizzle opened its doors briefly to adventurers and those seeking an escape from the mundane everyday life.

Downlanders explores the journeys of various characters venturing into this rugged wilderness. Each character has their unique motivations and differing fates. There are a lot of characters, so many that the author has written a who’s-who guide at the beginning. However, none of the characters are particularly likeable, nor are their reasons for travel compelling.

The story is told in the third person, with chapters alternating focus among characters and an occasional planet guide to Grizzle. Once we have heard from all of the characters the story then circles back to each character repeatedly.

As a fan of Alaska’s harsh wilderness, I was captivated by the setting of Grizzle. The depiction of its pristine landscapes resonates with the real Alaskan wilderness, which was the highlight of the book.

I found Downlanders a challenging read that took me some time to get through. While the book did not entirely resonate with me, its unique premise and decent plot are bound to appeal to many readers looking for a novel set in an unconventional location.

Frank Haberle is the author of two books: Downlanders (Flexible Press, November 2023), following five misfits into a fictional wilderness; and Shufflers (Flexible Press, Minneapolis, September 1 2021), a story of transients moving through minimum-wage jobs in the 1980s Frank’s short stories have won awards from Pen Parentis, Beautiful Loser Magazine, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Rose Warner Prize for Fiction. They have appeared in more than 30 journals including Deep Wild Journal, the Adirondack Review, the Baltimore Review, Wilderness House Literary Journal, Necessary Fiction, Vagabonds and the Nomadic Review. He is a product of St. Mark’s School in Massachusetts and Gettysburg College (PA).

Professionally, Frank has worked for more than thirty years as a nonprofit development writer, most recently with New Settlement in The Bronx. Voluntarily, he leads an Amherst method-driven writing group with the Creative Center for Health and Healing on the Lower East Side. Frank lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.