Gaining Ground -- Joan Barfoot, Paperback
A Lit Hub and Observer "Need to Read" Novel of the Summer "It will stay with me for the rest of my days. A life-changing book" --Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital
Unearthed after half a century, this radical portrait of a woman who leaves her family to live alone in a woodland cabin will pierce the heart of anybody who has ever wanted to escape.
I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.
Abra is a wife and mother living a suburban dream--until one day, she walks away. In a woodland cabin, her new life alone begins. There are no mirrors, no clocks, no memories: just the squirrels breathing in the forest, and the silence of vegetables growing. Years later, a young woman arrives, and the past-flashes begin. Daughter? A strange word. Is this her? And what will this mean?
Gaining Ground, originally published as Abra in North America, is a both a radical meditation on living on your own terms and an exquisite work of art. It calls to anybody who has ever wanted to escape--who has asked what it costs to be wild, to be sane, to be free.
Author: Joan Barfoot
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 8/25/2026
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55 lbs
Size: 7.7" H x 5" L x 0.7" W
ISBN: 9780571399888
