A thoroughly captivating read. I've read this within a span of several hours.

A boy is left under the care of his grandfather...they go to the woods to fulfil a promise to the boy's mother, despite the Old Man's reluctance. Things start to unravel from there

It's a gripping tragic tale about the unravelling of a man though his tragic past, about a boy caught up in this. A man who never stopped being wild, a man who didn't want to go back to a forest because he likely knew what it means: a confrontation with his beastly sides, a confrontation he likely feared the most. It's about fear, about human nature, survival and about promises. Most of all, I felt it strongly: emotional resonance and precision. all the descriptions of survival only highlighted the growing rift between a grandfather and his grandson, the grandfather's growing wildness and I felt it was even more tragic beyond everything else.

Some lines return like haunting refrains; that just emphasizes the tragic feel of the story and the old man's regrets. And the fairy tales the old man tells reveal a heart-wrenching past.

The story is so elemental, so primal, woven through fairy tales that really emphasize the tragic position of the old man and of the boy as he gradually grows, it's fantastic. I love the writer's rich style and approach.