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It Happened Like This is a coming of age memoir that takes readers on an intimate journey into adulthood, and into the depth and comfort of wilderness. The story explores what it means to find both a physical home and a home within ourselves, and how loving a place, like loving a person, can be both enthralling and heart-breaking. The highs and lows of a life of love, loss, risk and hope are played out in the Alaskan wilderness.
“You won’t find a better marriage proposal, or bear encounter, or life lesson from a mother moose, than the ones hiding in these pages. I loved this book for its honesty and gravity, for its fresh, buoyant language and keen storytelling. Every page embraces mystery, uncertainty, and grace and contains at least one sentence that’s a perfect gem. Adrienne Lindholm is a welcome new voice to Alaska literature.”
—Kim Heacox, author of Jimmy Bluefeather and Rhythm of the Wild
“A love letter to Alaska. Hailing from the developed East Coast, Lindholm finds her true home in the mountains and wilderness of Alaska. Her compelling tales of Arctic adventures will transport you there, and her struggles with big life decisions back in civilization will keep you reading.”
—Helen Nienhueser, coauthor of 55 Ways to the Wilderness in Southeast Alaska
“Adrienne Lindholm has written the truest kind of adventure story in It Happened Like This. Embedded among engaging accounts of backcountry explorations and outdoor challenges are thoughtful inquiries into what it means to become an Alaskan, what’s necessary to create a full life, and what wilderness can teach about perseverance, change, loss, and hope. More than anything, this is a gracefully written, openhearted tale about falling in love—with a place, with a person, with a family, and with a future.”
—Sherry Simpson, author of Dominion of Bears
“More than half of Alaska residents were born someplace else, and so there are many stories of ‘coming into the country.’ What sets It Happened Like This apart is the intensity with which Adrienne Lindholm explores Alaska’s wildest places—its trailless slopes, its wild rivers, its many tall peaks—and the fierceness of her love for these special places.”
—Miranda Weiss, author of Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska
In the News
Outside Magazine’s Best New Adventure Books for Fall
Interview for the Gear Show podcast
Interview for Out There podcast
Nancy Lord’s Book Review in the Anchorage Daily News
Interview by Zack Fields in The Anchorage Press
Adrienne Lindholm Profile in Eagle River Star
“Outdoor Explorer” Radio Interview with Charles Wohlforth