Yesteryear

A tradwife influencer gets trapped inside the harsh life of an early-19th-century homesteader in Burke’s crafty and cutting debut. To her millions of Instagram followers, Natalie Heller Mills is a “flawless Christian woman” leading an idyllic life on the self-sustaining Yesteryear Ranch with her hardworking husband, Caleb, and their five kids. In reality, the family’s remote Idaho farm is a money pit, Caleb is an internet-addicted conspiracist, and nannies raise the children while a live-in producer curates Natalie’s content, which pays the bills. When Natalie wakes one morning in a rustic facsimile of her home with a family that resembles hers but isn’t, it appears that she has traveled back in time to 1805. Is she a kidnapping victim, an unconsenting reality show contestant, or something more bizarre? All she knows for sure is that the bear traps and boredom of the early 19th century might kill her before she finds out (“Tomorrow, I will not have to shit in a rickety old shed outside”). Burke’s scathing satire of the conservative media complex unfolds from Natalie’s increasingly delusional first-person perspective as the action ping-pongs back and forth in time. Though the big reveal undercuts some of the book’s bite, the narrative is plenty riveting. Burke is off to an auspicious start. Agent: Lisa Grubka, UTA. (Apr.)