There is no happy ending for Josie in Ohio: Her feckless ex has oozed off to Florida, her thriving dental practice has been litigated out from under her, and one of her favorite patients has died a terrible and pointless death that she holds herself at least partly responsible for. And so she cashes it all in and heads for the unspoiled wonder of Alaska with her young son and daughter, determined to wipe the slate and start again—a flinty, can-do single mom carving out “a plainspoken and linear existence centered around work and trees and sky.” What she finds instead is a state consumed by raging wildfires, a temperamental RV misleadingly nicknamed the Chateau, and an undiminished craving for the sweet release of her two-Merlot lunch. Heroes of the Frontier’s story only grows shaggier as the Chateau rambles on, but Eggers’ language is its own frontier: bracingly bitter and funny and real. B+