Viator

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Summary: The quiet horror of the lonely mind
Review: Lovely language coasts in long ribbons around a tale of haunting dreams and lonely lives. Five men, formerly homeless, all of Scandinavian descent, find themselves disturbingly bound to their new job. Manpower has sent them to Alaska to assess a grounded freighter for its salvage value. The men pursue this work in ways that Wilander, the latest to arrive, finds nonsensical -- cutting and storing away bits of the ship, inventing new words. The men are reticent, secretive, unwilling to leave the ship, so Wilander acts for them, travelling into town for supplies, where he meets the beautiful and compelling Arlene. But even as Wilander begins to remold his frustrated and directionless life together into what may be a new and stronger whole, his mind is drawn into the spell of Viator and her mysteries. Images appear in the ship's walls, mirroring those his companions have seen. Is the ship's prow moving forward through the forest to a new destiny, or is he losing his fragile hold on sanity? What has happened to the Viator? And if he casts off for the greatest adventure of his life, will he lose Arlene?