"Heartwood" author Amity Gaige stopped by TODAY with Jenna & Friends on April 22 to discuss her riveting novel, chosen as Read With Jenna's April pick.
In the novel, a hiker goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. Gaige weaves the lost hiker, Valerie's, voice with the woman tasked with leading her rescue efforts and a recluse in a senior living home putting the pieces together too.
Gaige previously told TODAY.com the book was inspired by both a love of hiking and an exploration of feeling lost.
“We all get emotionally lost and psychologically lost on a daily or yearly basis,” Gaige said. “I felt that I quickly accessed my knowledge of emotional lostness and gave it to my hiker and was able to imagine and research the rest in terms of what she might do.”
Below, she recommends novels to read next.
"The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore
In her followup to up her popular novel "Long Bright River," author Liz Moore focuses on a summer camp disappearance and the haves and have-nots caught in the middle.
"The Appeal" by Janice Hallett
Like "Heartwood," "The Appeal" is novel that combines literary elements and heavy topics with a good 'ol thriller. The leaders of a community theater group start a fundraiser to pay for their grandchild's experimental cancer treatment. Then, a dead body turns up backstage. Two lawyers sift through all the written documentation to create a narrative.
"Vaster Wilds" by Lauren Groff
Like "Heartwood," Lauren Groff's "Vaster Wilds" is a story of survival. A servant girl escapes her home in the 17th century landscape that would one day become the U.S. and tries to survive on her own.
"Wild" by Cheryl Strayed
Cheryl Strayed's memoir has a legendary reputation by now, but to recap: This is the story of how Strayed, in the wake of a divorce and other difficulties, decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and how it transformed her life.
"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard
Readers will find similarities between "Heartwood" and Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," published in 1974. Dillard writes of the goings on in the natural world in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Expect detailed and stunning descriptions of nature.
Similarly, Valerie comes to pay attention to the minute changes before her while lost, and observes them in letters for her mother.