Wild Aster

"A novel that marries the feel of a timeless classic with a sharp, contemporary sensibility" (Alexis Schaitkin) about a woman with a talent for survival, whose life spans the early twentieth century.
Mae Smith starts her life as a stolen good: her biological mother, Ida, kidnaps her from her adoptive parents, and Mae grows up on the run, constantly changing towns and names, never able to find a home. After her mother's death, Mae is determined to live a different kind of life. But over the next half century, as she reinvents herself against the backdrop of the Depression and Second World War and pursues stability amid the personal upheavals of marriage and motherhood, she must reckon with the choices she's made and life's inexorable turns.
For readers of Alice McDermott, Anita Diamant, and Maggie Shipstead, Wild Aster explores the price of security, the drive to be a different mother than your own, and the daily gains and losses that define who we become. Ultimately, Mae's story challenges us to confront the choices we make for personal fulfillment and family obligation and the perseverance that even a seemingly ordinary life demands.

Anna Hogeland is the author of the novel The Long Answer, which has been translated into seven languages. She is a psychotherapist in private practice, with an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Her writing has appeared in Lit Hub, The Southern Review, Electric Literature, The Common, and elsewhere. She lives in western Massachusetts. You can find her online at annahogeland.com.