Bear: A Novel

Written by Julia Phillips

Narrated by Sophie Amoss

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the celebrated 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).

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK!

FINALIST FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Vulture, Chicago Public Library

“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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9780525529972

Julia Phillips

Julia Phillips lives in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, Disappearing Earth, will be publishedby Knopf in the US and Scribner in the UK, as well as publishers in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and China. Her Pushcart-nominated fiction appears in literary journals including Glimmer Train and The Antioch Review. Her nonfiction appears in such publications as The Atlantic, Slate, and BuzzFeed News, and was named notable in Best American Travel Writing. She spent a year as a Fulbright fellow in Russia's Kamchatka peninsula, where Disappearing Earth is set.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A story of sisterhood and dreams...and a bear.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A young lady (Sam) lives with her sister and mother on an isolated island off the coast of Washington state. Outside their home a large bear appears and the sisters have a hate/love relationship with the animal. Sam is very threatened but her sister Elena wants to cultivate a relationship with it. Other characters enter the drama and the bear becomes a metaphor for the sisters troubled relationships. The novel is too narrow in its focus.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having most of my life in cities and towns that cater to tourists, I dove into Bear by Julia Phillips. Two sisters and their dying mother live in a beautiful tourist town in a 1/2 million dollar ancestral home working jobs that barely get them by. They are buried in debt, including medical debt for their mother. One sister devotes all her emotions, work, and money to getting out. The other falls under the spell of a bear. It's a weird book, but what do you do when nothing else in life gives you reason?

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel is about two sisters living in the San Juan Islands, caring for their terminal mother, working hard to stay afloat, when a huge bear shows up and changes everything. It's mildly magical as the bear both inspires and frightens, and drives a wedge between the sisters and reveals their true natures. I liked the book though it did feel like it should have been a short story or novella and was stretched into a novel. This strange book is an easy read and I especially loved the Puget Sound setting.

[dianekeenoy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful book about two sisters, taking care of their dying mother while struggling through their dreary jobs trying to make ends meet. Then, one day, there's a bear, swimming in Puget Sound. Then, the bear appears on their doorstep. It's thrilling to Elena, the older sister and frightening to Sam, the younger sister. A fairy tale set in present day circumstances.

[susan.h.schofield · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book because I had enjoyed Julia Phillips debut novel, Disappearing Earth.
But I just couldn't get into the story. Sam was such an unlikable and immature character and I felt like you really didn't get to know Elena. It may have been a better story if you could have understood the sister's relationship from both their perspectives. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

[japaul22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was good. I think really good.

Sam and Elena are young adult sisters caring for their dying mother on a small island off the coast of Washington state. They are struggling to make ends meet and falling deeper and deeper into debt. But they have a strong family relationship and are each others' greatest support.

And then a grizzly bear arrives on their island and seems to be drawn to them. Elena is enamored. Sam is terrified. Somehow the arrival of this bear starts to make things unravel. Maybe the sisters' relationship isn't as strong as they think. The book is told from Sam's point of view, and maybe she's been reading things differently than her older sister all along.

Part fairy tale and part grim reality of living in America through a pandemic, with expensive medical issues, and without generational money - this is an impressive and engaging novel. I wasn't totally convinced by Phillips's first novel, [Disappearing Earth], but I knew that I liked her writing enough to read whatever she put out next. I'm so glad I did.

[tamidale · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is hard to pass over with such a lovely cover. Even though the story is sad, Julia Phillips has written it in a beautiful way.

Two young adult sisters are living with their dying mother, working to survive and pay their mother’s medical bills. They have long been saving for the time when the mother dies and they can leave the Island for a better life on the mainland.

When a bear is standing right outside their door one morning, it frightens Sam, the younger sister. Sam realizes the danger the bear can bring. Her older sister Elena is mesmerized by the bear and sees it as an omen or a sign of good luck.

Things escalate when the bear sticks around and begins following Elena and devouring animals on the Island. The sisters differing views on the bear cause strife in an already stressful relationship.

Not having a sister, I often felt as if these girls were too close, and that Sam was very dependent on Elena. However, they were living a very difficult life, supporting the household while watching their mother waste away.

Phillips does an excellent job at conveying a sense of foreboding throughout the book. This was one story I will not soon forget.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Random House for allowing me to read and advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review and recommend the book to other readers.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two sisters live in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington. They take care of their mother, and live in their tiny house, but they are waiting for a time when they can sell the house and go live on the mainland and start their lives. Sam works at the concession stand on the ferry, selling snacks and hot chocolates to tourists, hooking up now and again with one of the other ferry workers. Elena works at the golf club as a waitress, and takes on more of the work involved in caring for their terminally ill mother, but she's the oldest and takes on this burden. Things seem smooth, if not comfortable, after all, the pause in Sam's employment caused by the pandemic has left them in a hole, but they have the future to look forward to. Then a bear appears in their front yard, a rare, but not unknown occurrence. Bears do swim between the islands, mainly in search of mates. While Sam is wary, Elena is fascinated and although she tells Sam she's catching rides to work with co-workers, and not walking through the woods alone, this may not be true.

Bear is written by the author of Disappearing Earth, a brilliant collection of tightly connected short stories set on the cold and wild eastern coast of Russia. While the setting is not dissimilar, being on the isolated fringe of an empire, this novel has a simpler plot, told entirely from the point of view of one of the sisters, and moves straight-forwardly through time. That said, Phillips is doing some interesting work here; the bear is both a metaphor and an actual bear. The way that Phillips tells this story through Sam's unreliable eyes, the vivid way she describes the island setting with its beauty and lack of opportunities and affordability for working class people, and of wanting to escape a place you love is beautifully done.

[kayanelson · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I stopped reading on page 122. I had trouble with this book. Hated the characters, hated cliches of poverty and illness, etc.
But the biggest reason I stopped reading was how she kept mentioning the loss of job and income in the pandemic. Most people in lower level jobs were able to save money during the pandemic due to higher unemployment payments and the government stimulus payments. Several people told me that and it was also in the newspapers.

[pnwkatie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t love this while I was reading it, and am not entirely happy I did. I’m sure there’s some metaphors there about the bear and addiction or psychosis but it was abruptly brutal after a really really dull first 150 pages.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Julia Phillip’s Bear describes the realistic, contemporary problems of sisters caring for their dying mother, trapped by love and poverty. The family lives near a forest on an island with few job options. The younger sister, Sam, holds on to the childhood dream her sister Elena shared of selling the land and leaving the island after their mother’s death.

Their mother had masked the hardships of life when the sisters were girls. Their mom was beautiful and loving and joyful. They are committed to being home for her as her illness progresses and leaves her bedridden. Medical debts mount up while a lack insurance coverage leaves their mother without medicine for her pain. The girls’ service jobs cater to the rich tourists to their beautiful island. Sam bristles at their presumed superiority.

When a huge bear swims to the island and is found on the sisters’ porch, Sam is horrified but Elena, who had always been the more fearful, is mesmerized. Sam wants the bear gone, while Elena is enchanted by it and lures it closer, resulting in a divisive struggle as each sister seeks their own vision of salvation.

The story is an interesting riff on the fairy tale archetypes of sibling rivalry and the animal bridegroom, incorporating vivid and precise descriptions of the working poor with the desire to find transformation. For Sam, that means leaving and starting anew someplace with better opportunity, always united with her sister. Sam resists forging a full relationship with her coworker “with benefits”, trapped in the childhood pact made with Elena to stick together and get off the island. But Elena has encountered a sense of the mysterious other that enchants her. Even her secret boyfriend is unaware of Elena’s deep attraction to the dangerous entity that stalks her, and how deeply alive she felt in its presence.

The novel turns from realism to a dark irony with a grim conclusion.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[hccpsk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bear by Julia Phillips left me torn — on the one hand, I did not like it because it made me uncomfortable, but I also appreciate the skill involved in writing something so claustrophobic and disturbing. I also believe I will think about this book a lot over the next few weeks. Elena and Sam live on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington, struggling to make ends meet in the waning days of the pandemic while caring for their dying mother. Written in an almost omniscient second-person voice, the short book remains focused on Sam and the notions we get of Elena and their relationship are through her eyes which may or may not be reliable. While I think Phillips is an excellent writer, something about Bear feels unfinished. Readers of literary fiction will still find a lot to chew on with this book about sisterhood, financial struggles, nature, and being trapped.