Yesteryear: A Novel by Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke — a darkly funny, propulsive debut about a tradwife influencer forced to live the life she sells online.

A GMA Book Club Pick New York Times Bestseller

My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.

To her millions of followers, Natalie is the ideal traditional wife: living on a picturesque Idaho ranch called Yesteryear with her handsome husband, a growing brood of children, and a carefully curated life of homemade bread, farm chores, and Christian values. Behind the camera, the reality is very different — nannies, producers, industrial kitchen appliances, and a carefully maintained performance of perfection.

Then one morning Natalie wakes up in what appears to be 1855. No electricity. No internet. No modern medicine. No nannies. Just hard labor, hand-washed laundry, and a family that looks like hers but isn’t quite. Is she the star of a twisted reality show? Has she time-traveled? Is this a test from God — or something darker?

As Natalie fights to survive and uncover the truth, the glossy fantasy she built begins to crack, revealing the cost of the performance of womanhood she once sold so successfully.

Sharp, suspenseful, and unflinchingly observant, Yesteryear is a gripping satire of fame, tradition, faith, and the stories women are told — and tell themselves — about the lives they should want.