Heartwood

'Fast-paced and full of grace . . . a memorable meditation on the forms of care' SARAH MOSS 'An unforgettable treat' JANICE HALLETT 'An absolute must-read' ELIN HILDEBRAND 'One of my favourite recent reads' BARBARA KINGSOLVER, GUARDIAN In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the centre of the search is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who managing the search on the ground. While Beverly is searching, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie's disappearance may not be accidental.

Amity Gaige is the author of four novels, including Sea Wife (Fleet, April 2020). She is the winner of a Fulbright Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction. She teaches creative writing at Yale. Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, the Guardian, Die Welt, Harper's Bazaar, the Yale Review, Slate.com, One Story, Ploughshares and elsewhere. She lives with her family in West Hartford, Connecticut.