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David Guterson’s new novel Evelyn in Transit opens with two children in very different worlds coming to the same realization. In Indiana, a girl named Evelyn climbs a tree, looks warily upon the “big view” from her perch, and thinks, “I’m alive. I’m separate from everything else.” Half a world away in Nepal, a boy named Tsering reaches the same insight from atop a pile of yak hides.

From there, the story follows their journeys into adulthood. A misfit and somewhat of a rebel, Evelyn leaves home to hitchhike around the Western United States taking odd jobs and doing migrant labor before eventually settling near her family with her young son Cliff. Tsering follows his destiny as the sixth reincarnation of a lama named Norbu Rinpoche; he studies with monks, becomes abbot of a monastery, and eventually travels to the US to teach and translate. Their paths intersect when lamas arrive at Evelyn’s home to inform her that Cliff is believed to be the seventh reincarnation of Norbu Rinpoche, leaving Evelyn with a major decision to make about her son’s future. 

Guterson’s writing here is simply lovely. The narrative voice is a bit distant and the prose is spare, yet lyrical, with flashes of dry humor. He successfully strikes the balance he describes in his opening letter to readers: “on the one hand, a detached observer; on the other, driven by pathos.” A lot of the action happens between scenes and off the page, leaving readers to fill in their own interpretation of what happened and how Evelyn and Tsering are feeling. I found that my mind naturally filled the blanks with the emotion that wasn’t explicitly written on the page, which added depth to my reading experience.

At its heart, Evelyn in Transit is about a human searching for meaning and wanting to do what’s best for her son. In that way, Evelyn could be any of us. This is not the easiest book to read and interpret but it’s got a strong emotional payoff and will leave you reflecting on the nature of existence, spirituality, and how to “live the right way.” Evelyn in Transit would be a wonderful novel for book clubs to explore these questions and interpretations together.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the ARC. All opinions are my own.