I’ve been a huge fan of Amity Gaige’s work for years. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve recommended her 2013 novel, SCHRODER. But her work has never quite broken through into mainstream popularity. Here’s hoping that with the selection of her new book, HEARTWOOD, as a “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick, that’s about to change. Gaige is a writer who excels at blending literary suspense with genuine emotion, a skill that is constantly on display in her latest effort.

The novel focuses primarily on three women of different generations, whose lives intersect in surprising ways. At the center is 42-year-old Valerie. She’s a nurse who’s still recovering from the trauma of treating and losing so many patients during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many others before her, she decides to take a break from her regular life and embark on a lifelong dream to hike the Appalachian Trail.

"Gaige is a writer who excels at blending literary suspense with genuine emotion, a skill that is constantly on display in her latest effort.... HEARTWOOD is a gorgeous novel that I hope will finally bring Gaige the attention and broad readership she deserves."

There Valerie endears herself to pretty much everyone she encounters on the trail. She is given the trail name “Sparrow” and is beloved by many other hikers, particularly her closest trail friend, “Santo.” But when Santo had to leave the trail due to a family emergency, Valerie was left alone --- except for the periodic check-ins with her partner, Gregory, who meets up with her every couple of days with fresh food and supplies.

So it’s Gregory who alerts the authorities when Valerie is more than a day late for one of those supply drops. He’s connected with Lieutenant Bev, the head of the Maine Warden Service in this part of the state and an expert in finding missing people, which sadly is not a rare occurrence in this sparsely populated, rugged and desolate area. She knows how to run a search, and she does it well. But as the days drag on and hope seems to be fading, Lt. Bev (one of the first female game wardens, who’s now nearing retirement age) begins to doubt if Sparrow is going to be found safe and sound.

Rounding out the trio of primary characters is Lena, a 76-year-old woman who’s in an assisted living facility in Connecticut. Now that she uses a wheelchair and can’t leave the grounds of her residence, she relies on an online community to keep her connected to the hobbies she once enjoyed, like hiking and foraging. Like others around the country, she’s aware of Valerie’s disappearance once it’s picked up by the national news. But eventually she comes to the chilling realization that one of her online friends may hold a clue to Valerie’s whereabouts.

The perspectives of these three women alternate throughout the 12-day span of the novel, as Valerie’s strength wanes and as the searchers’ hopes fade. Their voices are also interspersed with other documents, including news stories, press releases and interview transcripts. At first, they don’t seem to have much in common other than their tenuous connection to one another, but it’s soon apparent that they all hold complicated relationships to mothers and mothering in one way or another.

Only Lena is a mother herself, although she has been estranged from her daughter (coincidentally also a nurse around Valerie’s age) since her daughter was a young woman. Bev is not a mother, although she is close with her sisters’ children. But raising the stakes of her search for Valerie is that Bev’s elderly mother is in hospice care, with very little time left to live. As for Valerie, she keeps her spirits (and perhaps her very self) alive by writing letters to her own mother, reflecting on what her hike has meant to her and how her mother’s advice has sustained her.

Valerie’s fate remains in the balance for almost the entire book. Although that is rarely far from readers’ minds, it is also true that Gaige still manages to weave in moments of reflection and contemplation --- about what it means to retain and repair relationships, how and why we choose to love, and what remains true at the end of our lives. HEARTWOOD is a gorgeous novel that I hope will finally bring Gaige the attention and broad readership she deserves.