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Heartwood

'nearly impossible to put down' Jennifer Egan

Amity Gaige

$34.99

Paperback

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English
FLEET
13 May 2025
'A riveting wilderness suspense novel by a novelist at the height of her powers' Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Candy House
'I can't recall the last time I've been so dazzled by a novel...

This is an ABSOLUTE MUST-READ. You will thank me' Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple and Swan Song

Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

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 heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut 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.

Heartwood is a 'gem of a thousand facets-suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending', (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker's odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character's interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.
By:  
Imprint:   FLEET
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 232mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 28mm
Weight:   380g
ISBN:   9780349127569
ISBN 10:   0349127565
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

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.

Reviews for Heartwood: 'nearly impossible to put down' Jennifer Egan

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 Heartwood is both fast-paced and full of grace, a story of jeopardy and a memorable meditation on the forms of care: for each other, for ourselves, for our dying planet. -- Sarah Moss 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 Deftly structured, compelling, and beautifully written, I was absorbed in Heartwood from the outset. Both a meditation on what it might take to hike the Appalachian Trail - and why - and a fascinating insight into the work of the game wardens who are custodians of the forest, I was rooting for Valerie, Beverly and Lena throughout. It was a fantastic read -- Sarah Franklin 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


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