Book Summary
Amity Gaige’s Heartwood is a hauntingly beautiful novel that intertwines mystery, survival, and the complexities of human connection. The story centers on Valerie Gillis, a 42-year-old nurse who vanishes while hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine, just 200 miles from completing her journey. As Valerie battles the elements and documents her ordeal through poetic journal entries addressed to her mother, Maine State Game Warden Beverly Miller leads a desperate search to find her. Meanwhile, Lena, a reclusive 76-year-old birdwatcher in Connecticut, becomes an unlikely armchair detective, uncovering clues online that may hold the key to Valerie’s disappearance.
Gaige’s narrative structure—alternating between Valerie’s harrowing survival account, Beverly’s determined search, and Lena’s unexpected involvement—creates a layered, suspenseful experience. While the premise suggests a straightforward wilderness thriller, Heartwood transcends genre with its lyrical prose and deep exploration of trauma, particularly the lingering effects of Valerie’s work as a nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics have praised the novel as “a gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending”.
Key Themes
Mother-Daughter Bonds and Absence: The novel’s title, Heartwood, refers to the innermost core of a tree—a metaphor for the enduring connections between mothers and daughters. Valerie’s journal entries to her mother reveal a deep, almost primal need for maternal comfort as she faces death. Similarly, Beverly grapples with her estranged mother’s impending death while Lena mourns her fractured relationship with her own daughter. Gaige suggests that these bonds, whether present or lost, form the structural core of identity .
Survival in Wilderness and Society: Valerie’s physical struggle in the Maine woods mirrors the emotional survival of the other characters. Beverly, as one of the few female game wardens, battles institutional sexism, while Lena confronts the isolation of aging and disability. Gaige draws parallels between the literal wilderness and societal marginalization, asking what it truly means to be “lost” and how we navigate systems not designed for us .
What Makes It Unique
Literary Thriller with Emotional Depth: Unlike conventional missing-person stories, Heartwood balances suspense with profound character studies. Valerie’s journal entries, written as she starves and hallucinates, are startlingly poetic (“When I grow up, I want to be a moss”). Beverly’s chapters offer a rare, authentic glimpse into search-and-rescue operations, while Lena’s acerbic wit and online sleuthing add unexpected humor and pathos. Gaige’s background as a Guggenheim-winning literary novelist elevates the prose beyond genre expectations .
Innovative Narrative Structure: The novel blends traditional narration with found documents—interview transcripts, tip-line recordings, and forum posts—to create a mosaic of perspectives. This technique mirrors the fragmented nature of truth in both wilderness survival and digital age investigations. Some readers may find the middle sections slow as the search drags on, but Gaige’s commitment to realism (including the frustrating dead-ends of actual searches) pays off in emotional authenticity .
Reader Reactions
Early reviews highlight the novel’s emotional impact, with Goodreads users calling it “crackling with life” and “the kind of book that lingers in your bones” . Many praised Beverly as a standout character—”a tough yet vulnerable heroine who defies the male-dominated thriller archetype” . The audiobook, narrated by a full cast, has been particularly acclaimed for bringing Valerie’s journal entries to life with raw intensity .
Some critiques note that Valerie’s eloquent journal entries strain believability given her deteriorating condition (“Would a starving woman really craft such polished metaphors?”). Others found Lena’s subplot initially confusing but ultimately rewarding. Despite these minor quibbles, the novel maintains a 4.2/5 average on Goodreads, with readers agreeing it’s Gaige’s “most ambitious and accomplished work to date” .
About the Author
Amity Gaige is the author of five novels, including the New York Times Notable Book Sea Wife and Schroder, shortlisted for the UK’s Folio Prize. A Guggenheim Fellow and creative writing professor at Yale, she’s known for blending literary craftsmanship with page-turning plots. Heartwood was inspired by the real-life disappearance of Geraldine Largay on the Appalachian Trail in 2013, though Gaige reimagines the story through the lens of pandemic-era trauma and female resilience .
Gaige’s personal connection to the material shines through her meticulous research—from the protocols of Maine game wardens to the ecology of the Appalachian Trail. In interviews, she’s described the novel as “a love letter to the women who hold society together, often invisibly,” whether nurses, caregivers, or first responders .
Memorable Quotes
“Sometimes, in your lap, I would press my hand against your chest so that I could feel the center of you—your heartwood, your innermost substance, like the core of a tree that keeps it standing.” —Valerie’s journal, reflecting on her mother’s love.
“For many years, as a tall, quiet woman with no children, a female keeper of the woods and waters, I felt a little hypothetical, even to myself.” —Beverly, on being a woman in a male-dominated field .