In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Amity Gaige's Heartwood, a literary thriller where a woman vanishes near Maine’s 100-Mile Wilderness. In its review, PW says "multifaceted characters and poetic prose enhance Gaige’s tender meditations on aging and mother-daughter relationships."
Here's how the book came together:
Amity Gaige
“The idea came from a real-life event, in which a female Appalachian Trail hiker got lost in Maine in 2013. I’d wanted to write an odyssey set in the woods, and I couldn’t shake the thought of this woman waiting for a rescue that never came. The hiker was a nurse, so this made me think to set my novel postpandemic, as my character is ‘walking off the war.’ This book was just fun to write. It was play; it was philosophical; it was post-Covid therapy.”
Kimberly Witherspoon
“I shared the novel with a handful of editors whose work I admire, with Olivia at the top of the list. She and Amity had an immediate connection, and I was thrilled to make this match. This novel is so compelling that my job was simply to flush out the editors who responded most fiercely to the story.”
Olivia Taylor Smith
“I had my call with Amity Gaige and her agent just a few days before the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair, and I could not stop thinking about these characters. I had Heartwood on my mind, and I preempted it as soon as the fair was over. When you have that sense of clarity, it is all-consuming. ”
Matt Roeser
“The final cover image of a woman’s profile made out of trees has double meaning. Initially, it can be viewed as a woman who is lost and disappearing
into the wilderness. But taken with the title, it can also be viewed as a woman who is as strong as the strongest parts of the forest.”
