Heartwood (a Read with Jenna Pick) - by Amity Gaige (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

"Heartwood will keep you guessing the whole way through. I didn't want it to end." --Liz Moore

"The best thriller of 2025." --The Boston Globe * "Genius." --The Washington Post

"A literary thriller of the highest order" (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple), Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time after a woman mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail.

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 an "unputdownable" (Real Simple) and redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.

Review Quotes

"Heartwood will keep you guessing the whole way through. Just as importantly, it will keep you emotionally invested. I didn't want it to end."
--LIZ MOORE, New York Times bestselling author of God of the Woods

"Heartwood by Amity Gaige is a literary mystery so subtle in its construction set against the beauty and ruggedness of the Maine wilderness. An interwoven story of mothers and daughters, of the nature of relationships and how they can sustain us and sometimes test us. With a remarkable cast of characters, a setting so real and a story so expertly told, Heartwood is a marvel."
--AMANDA PETERS, author of The Berry Pickers

"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, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

"A terrifically moving and tense thriller...genius."
--THE WASHINGTON POST

"Satisfying... Ms. Gaige's restrained style and psychological acuity ensure that Heartwood never takes the obvious road."
--WALL STREET JOURNAL


"[T]he best thriller of 2025 . . . A knock-out of a book, perfect for fans of Liz Moore's God of the Woods."
--THE BOSTON GLOBE

"A novelistic cousin to Strayed's best-selling 2012 memoir of tackling the Pacific Crest Trail after her mother's death, it's the story of three woodsy women each lost in her own wilderness, and the gnarled roots between mothers and daughters."
--NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"A crackling adventure story, a meditation on the fraught human connection to nature, and a subtle examination of the rocky relationships between mothers and daughters that shape the lives of its women characters, the novel tightens its grip as it moves toward uncovering its central mysteries."
--BOOKLIST, Starred Review

"A winning portrait of a woman, and community, in peril."
--KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Unputdownable."
--REAL SIMPLE

"Multifaceted characters and poetic prose enhance Gaige's tender meditations on aging and mother-daughter relationships."
--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


"Gaige's ability to introduce suspense and build it continuously, page after page, is astonishing.... [A] complex, thrilling work."
--MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

"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 HILDERBRAND, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple and Swan Song

"Heartwood is that rare unicorn of a book: A gripping page-turner of great beauty and insight. Amity Gaige's latest is a story about survival and resilience, but also about the bonds between mothers and daughters--a book that is at once intimate and expansive. I couldn't put it down even as it tore my heart apart."
--JANELLE BROWN, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things & Watch Me Disappear

"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, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning

"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, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek

"Heartwood is a riveting wilderness suspense novel: 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, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Candy House

"Heartwood by Amity Gaige shines as a gritty, 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, bestselling author of The Twyford Code

About the Author

Heartwood is Amity Gaige's fifth novel. It was selected by Jenna Bush Hager as a Read with Jenna pick for April 2025 and became an instant national bestseller. Amity is the author of four previous novels, O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife. Sea Wife was a 2020 New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Mark Twain American Voice Award. Schroder was also a New York Times Notable Book and a best book of 2013 according to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among others, and was shortlisted for UK's Folio Prize in 2014. In 2018, Amity was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her family and teaches creative writing at Yale.