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Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest
A page-turning memoir about a young woman's grueling, revelatory summers working alone in a remote lookout tower and her eyewitness account of the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire in the Canadian north.
While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers—strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. How could you isolate yourself for that long? she wondered. I could never do it, she told herself.
Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello's, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job.
Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly—labeled a domesticated wolf by her former owners—to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship—and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness—and freedom—that only solitude can deliver.
Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.
While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers—strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. How could you isolate yourself for that long? she wondered. I could never do it, she told herself.
Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello's, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job.
Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly—labeled a domesticated wolf by her former owners—to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship—and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness—and freedom—that only solitude can deliver.
Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published March 30, 2021
32 people are currently reading
1294 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
April 23, 2021
This memoir tells the story of Trina Moyles who takes a job as a fire tower lookout in northern Alberta amidst some personal and professional tumult. After about a decade in the international development sector and three years living in Uganda, she returns to her home country in hopes of carving out a life for her and her fiancé, Akello. Moyles reflects on her experience in the remote fire tower, scanning the horizon for smoke, and sorting though her needs and priorities.
I struggled with how to rate & review this book, in part because commenting on someone’s personal narrative always feels a little fraught. This is Trina’s story, regardless of how I felt about it, and writing something like this take incredible effort and vulnerability. That said, I did feel unsatisfied by the book. What follows encompass my thoughts, but with the caveat that I honor Moyles’s efforts in chronicling her experience.
From a nature writing perspective, I enjoyed Moyles’s recounting of her wilderness life and descriptions of the flora & fauna. She also did an excellent job of describing the lifestyle of a seasonal fire worker and conveying the climate implications of her industry. However, I also felt the book fell short in a few ways. The story’s pacing felt erratic and the writing -- especially the personal bits -- felt somewhat sophomoric. Relatedly, for a book that claims to be personal and introspective, I did not feel that Moyles’s gave enough space or depth to her inner dialogue. She did quite a bit of telling rather than showing, and I found myself frustrated at her lack of (expressed) accountability for her emotions and actions. She flirts with owning her choices but then sometimes devolves into blaming others. Finally, I did not enjoy the narration (listened on Libro FM). Typically, I really love memoirs that are read by the author, but Moyles’s inflections often felt performative which I found grating.
Ultimately, this was a middle-of-the-road read for me. It may land differently for other people, so if the premise sounds intriguing, I’d say give it a go. But maybe stick to a physical book instead of the audio.
I struggled with how to rate & review this book, in part because commenting on someone’s personal narrative always feels a little fraught. This is Trina’s story, regardless of how I felt about it, and writing something like this take incredible effort and vulnerability. That said, I did feel unsatisfied by the book. What follows encompass my thoughts, but with the caveat that I honor Moyles’s efforts in chronicling her experience.
From a nature writing perspective, I enjoyed Moyles’s recounting of her wilderness life and descriptions of the flora & fauna. She also did an excellent job of describing the lifestyle of a seasonal fire worker and conveying the climate implications of her industry. However, I also felt the book fell short in a few ways. The story’s pacing felt erratic and the writing -- especially the personal bits -- felt somewhat sophomoric. Relatedly, for a book that claims to be personal and introspective, I did not feel that Moyles’s gave enough space or depth to her inner dialogue. She did quite a bit of telling rather than showing, and I found myself frustrated at her lack of (expressed) accountability for her emotions and actions. She flirts with owning her choices but then sometimes devolves into blaming others. Finally, I did not enjoy the narration (listened on Libro FM). Typically, I really love memoirs that are read by the author, but Moyles’s inflections often felt performative which I found grating.
Ultimately, this was a middle-of-the-road read for me. It may land differently for other people, so if the premise sounds intriguing, I’d say give it a go. But maybe stick to a physical book instead of the audio.
May 3, 2025
Canadian writer Trina Moyles' 2021 memoir profiles a very interesting career I had previously never heard of -- wildfire lookout. Beginning in 2016 and for many subsequent seasons, Moyles spent the months from April thru August or September living in remote cabins in the boreal forest in the Canadian province of Alberta, spending hours per day on a cupola in the sky spotting early signs of forest fires so fire crews could extinguish them (here's an article about another lookout describing the job). Wildfire lookouts are a dying breed, with most other Canadian provinces and other countries phasing them out or turning to technological solutions for early fire detection, though as Moyles repeatedly describes, we're living in the pyrocene age when forest fires are becoming increasingly common in the wake of climate change.
While climate change and forest fires are discussed at length in this book (Moyles does reference the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, the subject of John Valliant's 2023 book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World -- though it appears she was not a lookout in the regions affected by this fire), I would consider this book largely a memoir focusing on Moyles' personal life, with a large focus on her romantic life and coping with her relative isolation (though I took issue with Moyles repeatedly describing her lookout existence as solitude, as it seems like she was in radio contact with many people daily and often hosted friends, family, lovers, and firemen in her cabin, and had access to email and mobile service for frequent check-ins with the outside world). There is a significant trauma dump at the beginning of the book about an event that happened years before Moyles' lookout job, and many time jumps throughout the middle of the book as Moyles reflects on a relationship she had with a Ugandan man that she broke off midway through her first fire season that felt disjointed and irrelevant to the main topic of the book.
Further reading: fascinating niche careers
Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg | my review
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Eliot Stein | my review
My statistics:
Book 133 for 2025
Book 2059 cumulatively
While climate change and forest fires are discussed at length in this book (Moyles does reference the devastating 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, the subject of John Valliant's 2023 book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World -- though it appears she was not a lookout in the regions affected by this fire), I would consider this book largely a memoir focusing on Moyles' personal life, with a large focus on her romantic life and coping with her relative isolation (though I took issue with Moyles repeatedly describing her lookout existence as solitude, as it seems like she was in radio contact with many people daily and often hosted friends, family, lovers, and firemen in her cabin, and had access to email and mobile service for frequent check-ins with the outside world). There is a significant trauma dump at the beginning of the book about an event that happened years before Moyles' lookout job, and many time jumps throughout the middle of the book as Moyles reflects on a relationship she had with a Ugandan man that she broke off midway through her first fire season that felt disjointed and irrelevant to the main topic of the book.
Further reading: fascinating niche careers
Drawn Testimony: My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist by Jane Rosenberg | my review
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive by Eliot Stein | my review
My statistics:
Book 133 for 2025
Book 2059 cumulatively
January 16, 2022
I have long admired the independent and resourceful people who spend their summers in isolation manning the forestry lookout towers in Alberta, watching for forest fires. I have wondered if I have what it takes to do that job. I am pretty happy alone, but would it be too much time alone? This book was a fascinating look into life at a fire lookout. After a decade of international humanitarian work, the author found herself at a crossroads and took a job at a lookout tower in Northern Alberta, fully expecting it to be a short term thing. She found herself drawn to the nature, the solitude, and the co-workers she came to know only from their voices on the phone and radio, and found herself returning summer after summer. The time in the tower led to a great deal of soul searching, as she reflected on the experiences that had brought her to this point. This is a memoir of that very personal journey, interspersing tales of the lookout tower with stories of her life before. She lays herself bare, and shares herself in a very honest and vulnerable way that is rare, even in memoir. Her relationship with her "temporary" dog, Holly, is especially beautiful. I enjoyed her writing style, often feeling like I was in the tower with her. I was also impressed with the way she discussed environmental issues without getting preachy. I read this book in two days, which is rare for me with non-fiction.
January 7, 2024
Trina was kind enough to let me read her manuscript early. I read it while working in the same fire tower where she was working while the events in this book took place. It was a pretty magical experience.
September 19, 2022
Such an engrossing read. Honestly felt like i was reading a fiction story! it’s interesting to see the lives lived up at the fire towers and just how important the work that they do is. thank you for sharing your story Trina! probably the best book i’ve read in 2022 :)
February 14, 2025
Well written. I enjoyed the connections to wildlife and the interesting facts the author provides. Unique story.
April 23, 2025
This was a really engaging story. Really interesting natural elements coupled with deep personal insights. I loved it.
March 30, 2022
Should be called Lovelorn
I was looking for something along the lines of Adam Shoalts and I came across this at the local bookstore. For some reason, I didn't really take note of the word "love" in the title. The dust jacket and blurbs forcefully centre the ostensible fact that this is a book about the north, its ecology, wildfires, and solitude.
But it isn't really about that. It's a memoir about Moyles's love life, in the end. Oh sure, there's a good deal about her staffing a few seasons at the lookout; but it's almost as though Moyles can't wait to get back to talking about her African partner and the other men who come to be interested in her. At one point, while knocking about her gear, it's revealed to all and sundry that she's packed a vibrator. Yeah, it's that kind of book.
The first few chapters had me engrossed, until love and its vicissitudes -- the partner, other men, her family -- dampen things for her, and thus for the reader. Just what exactly was the tower like all day? Her cabin? The routine? We do know what goes on, but it's all rather unstructured, as though to reflect the boredom of it all that plagues her.
When she breaks up with her partner (not a spoiler -- it's telescoped early on) her parents are inexplicably upset with her. Very upset. To the extent that her mother is scolding, and they undergo a few months of being distant. What? Her parents did that? Wow. I mean, if my parents ever treated me like that, I'd make it quite clear that, one, it's not really their business, and, two, how dare they judge my choices? It's quite incredible.
What really sank the book, for me, is when the ex-partner says to her: "Everything happens for a reason." Cliches like these bubble barely beneath the surface of the memoir, occasionally and unfortunately appearing from time to time. It's that kind of book.
Moyles is a gifted writer. I only wish she had delivered the book her publisher promises.
I was looking for something along the lines of Adam Shoalts and I came across this at the local bookstore. For some reason, I didn't really take note of the word "love" in the title. The dust jacket and blurbs forcefully centre the ostensible fact that this is a book about the north, its ecology, wildfires, and solitude.
But it isn't really about that. It's a memoir about Moyles's love life, in the end. Oh sure, there's a good deal about her staffing a few seasons at the lookout; but it's almost as though Moyles can't wait to get back to talking about her African partner and the other men who come to be interested in her. At one point, while knocking about her gear, it's revealed to all and sundry that she's packed a vibrator. Yeah, it's that kind of book.
The first few chapters had me engrossed, until love and its vicissitudes -- the partner, other men, her family -- dampen things for her, and thus for the reader. Just what exactly was the tower like all day? Her cabin? The routine? We do know what goes on, but it's all rather unstructured, as though to reflect the boredom of it all that plagues her.
When she breaks up with her partner (not a spoiler -- it's telescoped early on) her parents are inexplicably upset with her. Very upset. To the extent that her mother is scolding, and they undergo a few months of being distant. What? Her parents did that? Wow. I mean, if my parents ever treated me like that, I'd make it quite clear that, one, it's not really their business, and, two, how dare they judge my choices? It's quite incredible.
What really sank the book, for me, is when the ex-partner says to her: "Everything happens for a reason." Cliches like these bubble barely beneath the surface of the memoir, occasionally and unfortunately appearing from time to time. It's that kind of book.
Moyles is a gifted writer. I only wish she had delivered the book her publisher promises.
September 14, 2021
This was a deeply personal read for me. It was almost like looking in a mirror and seeing a reflection, but of my life on an alternate timeline.
In general, I think this book will resonate with many people even if the particulars of their experiences are drastically different.
It takes bravery to write this kind of account, and Trina’s bravery pervades the whole work.
A synopsis of the book will tell you what it’s about. Only reading it, you will feel what it’s about. Make no mistake, this book is also highly intellectual. Read it, learn, love, and grow.
In general, I think this book will resonate with many people even if the particulars of their experiences are drastically different.
It takes bravery to write this kind of account, and Trina’s bravery pervades the whole work.
A synopsis of the book will tell you what it’s about. Only reading it, you will feel what it’s about. Make no mistake, this book is also highly intellectual. Read it, learn, love, and grow.
May 11, 2022
I was just never as interested in Trina Moyles as she was in herself. She kept stepping in the way of the view she was trying to paint. 2.5 stars
December 22, 2025
Moyles delivers plenty good on the topics that drew me and many other readers: the ecology of the northern boreal forest, the dynamics of wildfires, and what the work of a fire lookout is like. The thing that surprised me is that book is primarily memoir vs. ecological journalism. I'm used to nature writing having a personal narrative woven in, but Lookout dwells in territory I initially found exasperating: The belief that you are a full participant in any setting you occupy; that what you desire corresponds in some durable way to who you are; that you are a protagonist whose comings and goings add up to a coherent, meaningful narrative that the rest of the world needs to know about. Memoir-inflected nonfiction always gestures in this direction, but, reading this book, I realized that they tend to do so in an intentionally guarded, defensive way, either building up a fortification of tonal authoritativeness or leaning in and using the resolution of some personal crisis as the framing device. At first it threw me off that Moyles doesn't bother with much of this - defending her choices, justifying her mistakes, seeking the reader's approval. Then I realized it's the strength of the book that drew me to it in the first place: we share in the rich, deeply-felt experience of an interesting, accomplished person, partaking in the extremity of life alone watching for forest fires and the familiar, self-contradictory impulses of desire and romance that flare in all of us. It's a relief that not every book about people in nature has to be Arctic Dreams - Thank you, Trina Moyles.
January 18, 2022
This book lit up my curiosity so fast with a furious, undeniable truth. My soul yearns for the struggle and challenge and solitude. Trina’s words transported me to a place of absolute life-affirming insight and I simply cannot wait to discover more about the life of being a fire lookout. Maybe my heart has always had this hidden fire hibernating where I couldn’t fully reach it, but now it is aflame and all-consuming. I hope it too delivers new life as beautiful as the pioneer plants that shoot up from the ashes of a wildfire.
June 26, 2022
I really enjoyed the tower portions, Moyles’ descriptions were vivid and evocative. I appreciated that she showed herself warts and all. The camaraderie between the spotters demonstrated the loneliness versus solitude well.
I didn’t like the jumping around the timeline at the beginning. Also though I know expensive, when you include photographer in your bio, please include photos in your book.
I didn’t like the jumping around the timeline at the beginning. Also though I know expensive, when you include photographer in your bio, please include photos in your book.
November 10, 2023
Outstanding! I love this book so much that it may be my all-time favorite non-fiction book. So beautifully written. I truly didn't want it to end. I want Trina to add chapters for each additional year she serves as a lookout so I can be reimmersed in the solitude and sanctity of the boreal forest atop her lookout tower from afar. A must read.
May 11, 2022
I really enjoyed listening to this non fiction book. Trina’s stories and descriptions of living alone as a lookout were remarkable. Last year I did a hike up to a lookout, so I could picture in my mind what it might have been like for Trina. I would recommend this book.
January 7, 2025
Definitely worth reading if you love nature, Alberta, firefighters, or people just trying to make sense of their lives.
April 22, 2021
Awesome book!
August 12, 2021
4.5 stars!
November 20, 2025
A woman goes out into nature alone and has to learn a gazillion lessons the hard way? Sign me up.
April 9, 2021
Canada's version of "Wild." Beautiful memoir, made me want to run off into the woods with my dog and some bear spray.
August 24, 2021
I DEVOURED this book in less than 24 hours! I literally could not put it down! Such a heartfelt, intense story that made me nostalgic for the Northern home I left.
May 7, 2022
This is a good book. I enjoyed reading it.
The author tells us of her 5 summers at a firetower in northern Alberta, on the lookout for - you guessed it - fires.
She is on a journey to "find herself", which she does. This part of the book is interesting. Hence the description of the book as a memoir. She describes the life well and it's certainly not something I could do.
There's just a bit too much info about her love and sex life for me. I wonder if I might have enjoyed it more if she had stuck to her original thought and written about forests, fires, forest management and climate change and not veered into the personal. Who know?
The author tells us of her 5 summers at a firetower in northern Alberta, on the lookout for - you guessed it - fires.
She is on a journey to "find herself", which she does. This part of the book is interesting. Hence the description of the book as a memoir. She describes the life well and it's certainly not something I could do.
There's just a bit too much info about her love and sex life for me. I wonder if I might have enjoyed it more if she had stuck to her original thought and written about forests, fires, forest management and climate change and not veered into the personal. Who know?
April 9, 2021
Lookout is an achingly beautiful and moving memoir. Moyles' prose is like poetry. It flows. It moves you. I am in awe of her eye for detail and ability to make vivid the shadowy places of our hearts. I was truly captivated by her words. She brings to life places, people and moments in ways I could not imagine, while also staying intimately relatable. Through the first half of the book, I felt her sadness and loneliness as if they were my own. Through the second half, I was emboldened by her confidence and hope.
After reading Lookout, I find myself looking differently at the natural world - the clouds, the grass - and looking differently at myself.
This book is meant to be shared with friends and family. And I believe many will return to its pages a time or two. I know I will.
After reading Lookout, I find myself looking differently at the natural world - the clouds, the grass - and looking differently at myself.
This book is meant to be shared with friends and family. And I believe many will return to its pages a time or two. I know I will.
August 17, 2021
Lookout is kind of a find-yourself-in-wild-solitude tale that reminded me of Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a book I hated. So maybe it didn't remind me of it so much as it made me think of it and how much better Lookout is. Also it's Canadian. As well as the story in it, it's interesting to read the information about forest fires so it's timely too I guess. Anyway, it would be a good reading group book as well as just a good solitary read. If I thought I could make it to the top of the ladder and if I weren't afraid of heights, being a lookout would be a perfect job for me. But this this book is about much more than Trina's job as a fire-spotter. It's about love, guilt, fear, finding out who you are and where you belong, and relationship with people and place.
July 16, 2021
Excellent engrossing read. Timely as well with all the wildfires burning out west. I couldn’t put it down.
June 20, 2022
Beautifully written. At times I could feel her sense of wonder or fear, at other times a tenderness and vulnerability, and at times her passion and fierceness. The book is somewhat like Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek--for her patient observation and discovery of so much beauty in looking at the "same" view day after day--yet Moyles is less intense, less zeroed-in, and more expansive in her passion and breadth of scope. -Naturally, given she sat 100 ft up in a tower for 4 months a summer [smirk].
I liked this book. I really liked it.
I liked this book. I really liked it.
October 29, 2024
This is a fantastic memoir. I was prepared to get bored- after all, how much could be said when your job is sitting on a tower waiting to see smoke? But Trina is an incredible writer, and I appreciated the beautiful descriptions of nature, the vulnerability of acknowledging her mistakes and fears, and the details of her unglamorous (yet periodic romantic) lifestyle of living in the remote wilderness. Discussions of climate change and the future of forest fires also were a slam dunk for my personal interests. So glad to have read this!
February 1, 2022
This is a well-written biography, that gives a good account of working in a fire tower, something which I knew little about. As someone who moved to Alberta in 2017 and has experienced the smoke from the fires Moyle observed, it was quite interesting. Less enjoyable was the account of her personal life and romantic situation.
June 27, 2022
Very engaging for a non fiction work! Very much recommend!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews