Cape Heartache is the lone American contribution to Philip Sava’s wildly popular series of exploration novels. It is based loosely on an expedition he made to the Pacific Northwest as a teenager in 1881 and is generally regarded as the most candid and clearheaded of his works. Revolving around a homestead he built in a coastal grove of old growth trees, the novel documents his romance with a young woman who was a descendent of the Nehalem Tribe. Its themes of leaving the familiar and finding comfort and solace in a new place still resonate today.
