- Author
- Matt Ansbro
- Series
- Wild Roads — Book 2
- Status
- Available now — released March 8, 2026
- Setting
- The Oregon coast — a small town at the end of the road, where the trilogy reaches the ocean.
- Themes
- Grief · Grace · Arrival · Belonging · Obligation
- Publisher
- ADVNTR Press
Wild Roads — Book 2
The Bare Horizon
The road delivered them to the ocean. Now they have to decide if they can stay.
Eli, Mason, and Riley left Durango with a broken-down truck and the weight of what they were running from. By the time they reach the Oregon coast, the truck is dead, the money is gone, and Eli's body is failing in ways he can no longer ignore.
Cooper — the dog Eli found and kept — turns out to have a past. A family searching for him. Returning him means losing the one solid thing Eli has left. Keeping him means living with an obligation he never asked for.
The road has narrowed to this: a small town, a stranger's kindness, and the question of whether arrival is harder than leaving ever was.
The Bare Horizon is the second book in the Wild Roads trilogy — a literary road novel about grief, grace, and what it means to stop running long enough to be found.
Questions readers ask
- Is The Bare Horizon part of a series?
- Yes. It is Book 2 of the Wild Roads trilogy. The Unfinished Map (Book 1) comes before it, and The Longest Road Home (Book 3) concludes the series.
- Do I need to read The Unfinished Map first?
- The Bare Horizon continues the same journey with the same three friends, so reading The Unfinished Map first is the intended order.
- What is The Bare Horizon about?
- Eli, Mason, and Riley reach the Oregon coast with a dead truck and no money, and have to decide whether they can stay. It's a novel about grief, grace, and whether arrival is harder than leaving.
- Where is it set?
- A small town on the Oregon coast, where the road west finally runs out at the ocean.
- Is it available now?
- Yes. The Bare Horizon was released on March 8, 2026 and is available on Amazon.