Heartwood: 'nearly impossible to put down' Jennifer Egan

(Hardback)

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'An unforgettable treat' Janice Hallett

'An absolute must-read' Elin Hildebrand

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.

Reviews

I can't recall the last time I've been so dazzled by a novel. Heartwood is a literary thriller of the highest order. Amity Gaige's writing is both eloquent and authoritative. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST-READ. You will thank me -- Elin Hildebrand
Amity Gaige's Heartwood shines as an evocative and heart-stopping wilderness thriller. Yet this journey into the harshness of nature and the horror of being lost is also a beautifully crafted eulogy to human survival and an ode to the power of the spirit as it echoes between the generations. An unforgettable treat from first page to last -- Janice Hallett
Heartwood is a true wilderness thriller: a missing person quest rendered in agile, extraordinary prose by a novelist at the height of her powers. I found it nearly impossible to put down -- Jennifer Egan
Heartwood is a masterfully multi-layered novel-at once a propulsive, nail-biting missing person thriller, an inspiring wilderness survival tale, and a deeply moving exploration of the complexities of mother-daughter bonds. With eloquence, insight, and grace, Amity Gaige uses gorgeous prose and the perfect structure to create one of the most emotionally satisfying and heartwarming stories I've read in a long time. I loved this book -- Angie Kim
Heartwood is mind-bogglingly good, and I tore through it despite my best intentions to savor every page. It's got such a brilliant, enthralling momentum. It's eerie and beautiful and fascinating - a book about survival against every existential threat, about connection despite every force tearing us asunder. I will be pressing it into everybody's hands -- Catherine Newman
Heartwood is a gem of a thousand facets-suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending, a novel as curious about birds and moss as it is about the innermost hearts of mothers and daughters. I read it at lightning speed, and now I treasure how the woods of this book persist in my mind -- Megha Majumdar
Heartwood is a true wilderness thriller: a missing person quest rendered in agile, extraordinary prose by a novelist at the height of her powers. I found it nearly impossible to put down -- Jennifer Egan

Author Bio

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.