Cheryl’s younger brother. Something of a ne’er-do-well, Leif is in his late teens at the start of the story and deeply emotional. He’s unable to reckon with the fact that his mother is dying, and avoids the hospital during her entire struggle with cancer. Cheryl eventually coaxes him to come to the hospital, but by the time they arrive, it is too late—their mother is dead. Cheryl has a clear soft spot for Leif in spite of his emotional distance.
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Leif Character Timeline in Wild
The timeline below shows where the character Leif appears in Wild. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: The Ten Thousand Things
Growing up, Cheryl’s mother always told Cheryl and her siblings Karen and Leif that she loved them so much the amount couldn’t be “quantified or contained,” and she...
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...land and build a small house upon it, and eventually, Cheryl’s mother, Cheryl, Karen, and Leif moved onto the property full-time while Eddie stayed behind in the city to work.
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...to Paul.” Cheryl only managed to get Karen to visit once, and could not get Leif to come to the hospital at all. In the last few days of Cheryl’s mother’s...
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...mother had taken a turn for the worse and became determined to bring her brother Leif to the hospital to say goodbye. Cheryl left the hospital, went home, and began calling...
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Chapter 2: Splitting
...has grown frayed and distant in the years since her mother’s death. She rarely sees Leif or Karen and has divorced Paul recently “after a harrowing yearlong separation.”
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Chapter 10: Range of Light
Paul and Cheryl decided to put Lady down on Christmas Day, with Leif’s help. What should have been a sad but simple act, however, soon became a harrowing...
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Chapter 13: The Accumulation of Trees
...for the PCT. She visited her family in Minnesota, and when she went to visit Leif at their old house, she found that Eddie and his friends had carved their names...
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