If You Like Heartwood…

Heartwood by Amity Gaige (2025) is part mystery, part survival story, and part exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters. A hiker has gone missing on the Appalachian Trail in Maine and the search to find her gets nationwide attention. The story is told from three points of view: the hiker’s diaries, the game warden who leads the search, and an elderly woman in a nursing home in Connecticut who becomes interested in the case. Once started, it is really hard to put down this book. That’s not only because of the suspense of the search but because Gaige draws the characters with such compassion and depth.

If you are looking for another compelling read with similar elements of the wild, the search, and the relationships, check out these choices below.

Water Dogs by Lewis Robinson (2009)

Robinson was one of my teachers at the Stonecoast MFA at the University of Southern Maine! He is a fabulous mentor, and you should definitely check out his book. Bennie, his brother Littlefield, and a group of friends play paintball during a blizzard in the Maine woods. One of the players disappears during the game, and Littlefield leaves town suddenly after being named a suspect. Bennie tries to uncover the truth about the missing person and about his family.

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel (2017)

This non-fiction choice follows the story of Christopher Knight. In 1986 he decided to live completely off the grid in Maine. He survived thanks to his knowledge and guts as well as the things he strategically stole from the summer cabins nearby. Observing how Knight lived for decades away from society was almost like solving a puzzle.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (2024)

This is a story of two siblings who disappear in the woods, one in the 1960s and one a decade later. As the truth slowly unfolds about what happened to each of them, the reader is drawn deeper into the psychology of the family and those in their orbit. Check out my post of readalikes for this book.

Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang (2024)

Ash’s parents have agreed to call them by their new name, but the adults seem befuddled by their choice. When the adults agree to let Ash stay with a cousin for a month in the summer, Ash makes a plan to find their grandfather’s old cabin in the woods and live there. A gritty and heart-warming story of how to survive and how to find yourself.