Wyoming is something else. When I first saw the sun rise behind me, turning the Tetons purple and red, their white caps shimmering in the lake’s reflection before me, I knew I wanted to be closer to the mountains. It became a large part of my decision to move out West. The Solace of Open Spaces captures that magnetic draw with poetic precision. Gretel Ehrlich’s recollections of the years following her lover’s early death tracks her move from New York to Wyoming. The allure of the wide open sky, singular individuals, the brutality of nature, and an altogether foreign existence parallels her recovery from grief and growth into her new home. Ehrlich paints Wyoming, and those who call it home, with depth and tenderness as only someone who has been fully seduced by the American West can.