Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Category:Contemporary Fiction/Psychological Thriller/Satire

Rating:4.18/5 

Pages:400 

About the Book:

Natalie Heller Mills lives a traditional lifestyle—and has the social media accounts to prove it. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her children each more delightful than the last. What her eight million followers don't know won't hurt them: there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade appliances, her husband the heir to a political dynasty. Natalie isn't simply living the good life—she's building an empire from it, curating a vision of perfect pioneer womanhood while blocking out the "Angry Women" who call her an antifeminist iconoclast.

Then one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they're all familiar, but something is deeply wrong. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity. Her children are dirty and strange. Her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was photographing homemade jam for Instagram; now she's expected to haul firewood and hand-wash clothes until her fingers bleed. Is this an elaborate hoax? A twisted reality show? A test from God? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: this is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

Described as "The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale," this darkly funny and frightening debut examines tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood. Praised by Anne Hathaway, who is adapting it into a major film, Yesteryear has become a cultural phenomenon. The novel has been called "intelligent, incisive, insanely readable" and "wickedly funny, frighteningly perceptive," offering a gimlet-eyed look at the tradwife phenomenon and the dangerous cost of curating a life you were never meant to live.