With her new novel, Lori Lansens, the best-selling author of The Girls, may have reached the peak of storytelling prowess. The Mountain Story is a fast-paced and profound adventure that demands to be read in a single sitting.

On his 18th birthday, Wolf Truly takes the tramway to the top of a Californian mountain, intending to jump to his death. Instead, he encounters three stranded women. Pressured into abandoning his mission to help with theirs, he soon finds himself lost in the wilderness with three generations of females from a family with the surname Devine. Their survival tale is riveting, but The Mountain Story is not simply a narrative of humans versus nature. It is equally a tale of facing down disappointing childhoods, the death of loved ones, tragic mistakes, and humiliating failures.

The novel takes the form of a letter from Wolf to his son. According to Wolf, “there will be sway” has become the Truly family’s motto, arising out of the scream-inducing, nausea-provoking swing experienced by riders of the mountain tramway. Over the course of the book, Wolf and the Devines experience much “sway,” in the form of deadly cliffs, hungry coyotes, circling vultures, and inclement weather.

But all four felt sway in their lives prior to getting lost on the mountain. By relating a series of confessional stories, the hikers come to terms with their pasts, through forgiveness or through a process of deliberate forgetting.

As the surnames suggest, Lansens uses near-death experience to explore big questions, including the existence of God. Occasionally, the allegory implied by these names is a touch forced: “I felt no small amount of pride in the blessing of the Devines,” Wolf thinks at a particularly awe-inspiring moment. However, this occasional heavy-handedness is a small quibble in an otherwise thoroughly delightful reading experience. The Mountain Story is the best kind of binge read: exhilarating, inspiring, and life-affirming.