Yesteryear: A Novel

Description

#1 New York Times Bestseller · GMA Book Club Pick · A New York Times Best Book of the Year So Far

Natalie Heller Mills lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband is a handsome cowboy, and her six children are each more delightful than the last. To her 8 million followers, Natalie is not simply living the good life. She is living the ideal, and building an empire from it.

Behind the scenes, however, that perfect image is carefully managed. There are nannies and producers, industrial-grade fridges and ovens hidden in the kitchen, and a husband who is the heir to a political dynasty. What Natalie’s followers do not know will not hurt them.

Then one morning, Natalie wakes up in a life that looks familiar but feels terrifyingly wrong. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire instead of electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband has become a competent farmer. Just yesterday, she was curating photos of homemade jam for Instagram. Now she is expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed.

As Natalie tries to understand whether she has become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show, travelled through time, or fallen into something far more sinister, the world around her becomes increasingly brutal. When she suffers a violent injury in the woods, she realises this is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

Yesteryear is a darkly funny and frightening historical fiction mystery about tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.