Chasing the Wild

They called Jack “Golden Boy.” Star high school athlete, lots of money and a big house on the lake. No problems, no worries. Until his mom’s funeral. Now his dad’s in jail for running a Ponzi scheme and his little brother’s dying of cancer. The doctors are pushing chemo and radiation. But his brother has only one wish—to runaway and find Kunik, the magical polar bear from an Inuit legend his mom used to tell. So Jack and his drifting friend, Jill, come up with a crazy plan. Sneak across the Canadian border all the way to the Arctic Ocean. On the journey, they discover a dark secret about their legend, and why it can’t be told in the North anymore.

It’s a fast-paced adventure novel with shades of magical realism. Starting in Lake Oswego, Oregon, the characters con their way to the Arctic on a stolen boat, a “sort of” rented SUV, and finally a rogue bush plane. They brave the perilous but beautiful Dempster highway, meet First Nations people, and learn how native children were displaced to Indian Residential Schools, a miserable social experiment designed to kill the Indian in the child.

In addition to Chasing the Wild, John Heninger has authored the Secrets of the Netherside trilogy, consisting of The Nightkeeper’s Shadow, Escape from Pandemonia and Eyes in the Stone. Mr. Heninger lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with his wife and two sons.