“Where does a mistake begin?” So begins Amity Gaige’s literary thriller, inspired by a real-life 2014 Coast Guard rescue. Michael and Juliet, facing an ailing marriage and midlife malaise, decided to sell all their worldly possessions and spend a year sailing around the Caribbean. But now Juliet is home, Michael is absent, and we don’t know why—but it’s clear everything changed on the yacht. In dual narratives, we see Juliet struggling mightily to cope with her current life in the suburbs, and—thanks to her early discovery of Michael’s captain's log from the voyage—we get Michael’s real-time, emotional account of their harrowing times on the open seas, and the unbearable stress it placed on their already-crumbling relationship. A harrowing portrait of a boat in peril and a marriage in crisis.

From the publisher: "The external lives of Clark, a high school guidance counselor, and Charlotte, a bookkeeper, are utterly ordinary, but their interior lives are as bold and complex as abstract paintings colored by imagined possibilities, childhood joys and, more darkly, by deeply buried fears. When Clark rescues a young boy from drowning, a chain of events-some comic, some harrowing-is set in motion, revealing the fault lines of the couple's marriage and individual psyches. Amity Gaige is a consummate stylist. Her every sentence contains a tiny world-marrying striking images to deep, soulful ideas in perfectly concise fashion."

From the publisher: "The story of an idealistic young social worker drawn into the lives of his mentally ill clients. Charlie Shade was born into a quiet, prosperous life, but he feels destined to leave his life of 'bread and laundry,' to work instead with people in crisis. Charlie's empathy with his clients—troubled souls like Hal, the high-school wrestling champion who undergoes a psychotic break, and Opal, the isolated young woman who claims 'various philosophies have confused my life'—is both admirable and nearly fatal. An adoring husband and new father, Charlie risks his own cherished, private domestic world to help Hal, Opal, and others move beyond their haunted inner worlds into the larger world of love and connection. A collision of extraordinary characters, The Folded World addresses the universal dilemma of love, wherein giving to another can seem like 'the death of the world of oneself.'"

I loved Gaige’s 2020 novel Sea Wife (included in that year’s SRG) and was excited to read more from her. When Heartwood begins, we know a search is underway for experienced 42-year-old hiker Valerie; she’s wandered off the Appalachian Trail and a widespread search is now underway. In rotating points of view, we learn where Valerie currently is and the details of her current predicament, the plan for coordinating scores of volunteers to comb the woods to find her, the reasons the authorities consider her ex-husband to be a suspect, and why a seemingly unconnected woman at a nearby retirement community may hold the key to Valerie’s survival. I raced through this gripping tale of survival, isolation, and the deep human need for connection. I think it’s fair to say that the Maine woods are a character in their own right: they are vast, wild, and unforgiving.