Description
I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.
Abra has a perfect-seeming life as a wife and mother: until one day, she walks away, leaving only a note asking her family not to look for her.
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 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?
Joan Barfoot's Gaining Ground is both a provocative 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.
Endorsements
'A joyful and generative novel about running away to make a new home for a new self.' — Sarah Moss
'I didn’t know how badly I needed it. Barfoot shows us the beauty and terror of being alone.' — Amy Key
'This is what the best writing does: makes you think, think again, think better.' — Claire Kilroy
'A modern masterpiece.' — Doireann ní Ghríofa
'An outstanding sense of place and inner space: unsettling as well as memorable.' — Margaret Drabble
'Beneath the radical disquiet is a beautiful hymn to the hearts and minds of women.' — Sarah Hall