Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR) • A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

"A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear…will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page."
—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series

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

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.

Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.

Caro Claire Burke is an insightful cultural commentator, podcaster, and novelist who has quickly made a significant mark on the contemporary literary landscape. She honed her craft and deep appreciation for storytelling by earning her Master’s in Fine Arts from the prestigious Bennington Writing Seminars. Her rigorous academic background in creative writing laid a strong foundation for a career dedicated to exploring the complex and often contradictory realities of modern American life.

Before taking the publishing world by storm, Burke built a dedicated audience as the co-host of Diabolical Lies, a popular politics and culture podcast. Through the podcast, she regularly engages in sharp, witty, and thoughtful conversations about the nuances of society, social media trends, and political undercurrents. This ongoing exploration of the modern cultural zeitgeist perfectly positions her to observe and dissect the bizarre phenomena of internet fame and performative lifestyles. Her incisive eye for social critique directly feeds into the thematic depth and biting humor of her fictional writing.

Burke’s unique ability to blend sharp social commentary with suspense culminated in the release of her highly anticipated 2026 debut novel, Yesteryear. The book is a darkly funny, gripping psychological thriller that serves as a brilliant satire of modern internet culture. It follows the story of Natalie Heller Mills, a wildly successful "tradwife" social media influencer who profits off a highly curated, traditional lifestyle. The plot takes a thrilling, speculative turn when Natalie suddenly wakes up trapped in the brutal, unglamorous reality of the year 1855. Through this inventive premise, Burke masterfully examines the grand performance of womanhood, the superficiality of fame, and the stark contrast between romanticized historical aesthetics and actual history.

Upon its release, Yesteryear became an instant sensation, praised by critics for being relentlessly fast-paced and fiercely intelligent. The novel was selected as a Good Morning America Book Club pick and celebrated by major outlets for its ambition. Its massive success quickly led to a major film adaptation deal with Amazon MGM, with Anne Hathaway attached to star and produce. With a background firmly rooted in astute cultural observation, Caro Claire Burke has established herself as a daring and essential new voice in fiction.

“Mesmerizing… An ingenious, exquisite, be-careful-what-you-wish-for… In Burke’s biting prose, Natalie is an electric antiheroine… Revelatory… Yesteryear draws to a dizzying conclusion.”
–Michelle Ruiz, The New York Times Book Review

“One of the year’s most relentlessly fast-paced and satisfying novels, a sharp and witty social satire that also works as a taut thriller and a vexing work of speculation… Unusually ambitious for a debut novel and also uncannily astute about the complicated, contradictory times in which we live.”
--Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

“The closest we’ll get inside a tradwife’s real and imperfect mind… Burke doesn’t hold back… The humor is delightful… I laughed out loud… Burke’s writing is honest and accessible. She’s not trying to slander Natalie; she’s trying to show us the unvarnished version. At the end of the day, that’s the paradox of Yesteryear — and one that makes it worth reading.”
–Ginny Hogan, The Cut

“Bitingly funny and occasionally heartbreaking… Burke deftly paints a portrait of a woman whose sharp edges and supreme capability put her at odds with everyone in her life… More than a giddy, gory tale of a tradwife’s comeuppance… Emotionally resonant.”
–Aiden Arata, Los Angeles Times

“Bracing… There are more than a few satisfying twists that kept me reading late into the night… Juicy, vindictive and loads of fun.”
–Maddie Oatman, Mother Jones

“Burke keeps the reader guessing… I had no idea where the story was going—and found myself genuinely surprised at the end.”
–Véronique Hyland, Elle

"Caro’s writing grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go.”
–Anne Hathaway

“An absolutely unhinged (in a good way) novel about a lifestyle influencer. . . . When I tell you the ending is off the rails, I am telling you the ending is off the rails.”
—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist

"The canniest fictional dissection of femininity and the panopticon of social media....A rollicking satirical debut."
—Vogue, "The Best Books of 2026"

"Perfect wife, perfect life? Think again. A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear examines the power of social media to spin a lie so deep, it turns 'home sweet home' into a prison. Page-turning and illuminating, this caustic look at the tradwife will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page."
—Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series

“Yesteryear is the novel I didn’t know I needed. Inventive, addictive, and perfectly funny, this is a dark, biting social commentary on the many performances of modern womanhood and the cultural age we’re living in. A wild, thought-provoking ride, sure to be one of my favorite books of the year.”
—Ashley Audrain, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

“Wickedly funny, beautifully written, and frighteningly perceptive. Caro Claire Burke doesn't just expose the underbelly of a tradwife's immaculate Instagram, but ideals of motherhood, marriage, and America. It's unforgettable. (How the hell could

Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, Yesteryear, is a sharp psychological thriller and biting social satire that brilliantly dissects the modern phenomenon of the “tradwife” influencer. The story revolves around thirty-two-year-old Natalie Heller Mills, a woman who has perfected the art of performing an idyllic, traditional life. Pregnant with her sixth child, Natalie lives on a sprawling five-hundred-acre Idaho property perfectly named Yesteryear Ranch. To her millions of followers, she is the ultimate icon of wholesome, submissive Christian domesticity, spending her days baking sourdough, homeschooling her children, and catering to her husband, Caleb. However, the reality behind the camera is a carefully orchestrated illusion. Natalie’s rustic farmhouse secretly hides industrial-grade appliances, her children are primarily raised by off-screen nannies, and her brand is tightly managed by a social media producer named Shannon. Beneath her soft-spoken online persona, Natalie is deeply calculating, secretly funneling money into private accounts and harboring intense contempt for her followers, her staff, and even her own family. Caleb, the heir to a wealthy political dynasty, is actually unemployable and directionless, leaving Natalie to carry the structural weight of their lives.

The novel weaves between Natalie’s past—chronicling her strict religious upbringing in Idaho, her brief time at Harvard where she met Caleb, and her meteoric rise to influencer fame—and a sudden, horrifying present. Natalie’s carefully curated empire begins to crumble when she discovers Caleb is having an affair with Shannon. In a fit of rage, Natalie physically assaults the producer, leading to a massive public scandal mitigated only slightly by Caleb's politician father, which ultimately destroys her brand and credibility. It is in the immediate aftermath of this catastrophic downfall that the novel takes its most thrilling and surreal turn. One morning, Natalie wakes up on Yesteryear Ranch to find that the world she knew has vanished. She appears to have been transported back in time to the mid-nineteenth century, seemingly the year 1855. The hidden electricity and modern appliances are gone, replaced by sputtering hearth fires and brutal cold.

Trapped in this nineteenth-century nightmare, Natalie is suddenly forced to perform the agonizing, backbreaking physical labor she previously only pretended to do. She must haul heavy firewood, handwash clothes until her fingers bleed, and scavenge to survive. The people around her are familiar yet terrifyingly altered. Her once soft-handed husband is now a stern, competent, and harsh pioneer farmer whom she simply thinks of as “Old Caleb”. The children in the house—led by a stern older girl named Mary and featuring a sickly youngest named Maeve—are dirty, strange, and completely unrecognizable to her. Initially, Natalie believes she is the victim of an elaborate prank, a hidden-camera reality show, or perhaps a divine test orchestrated by God. She makes multiple desperate attempts to escape the property, only to be thwarted by the unforgiving wilderness and a brutal injury from a snare trap that forces her to resign herself to this archaic existence.

As the harsh winter approaches, the illusion of the pioneer aesthetic completely collapses under the weight of genuine exhaustion and patriarchal subjugation. The narrative exposes the dark irony of Natalie’s situation: she is now imprisoned by the exact gendered power structures and grueling domestic dependence that she spent her career monetizing and selling to other women. When baby Maeve falls dangerously ill, Natalie realizes she must make one final, desperate bid for freedom before she becomes more pregnant and the weather traps them completely. Directed by Mary, she sets out on a harrowing journey through the woods under the guise of finding medicine.

It is during this escape that the novel’s devastating twist is finally revealed. After walking for hours, Natalie stumbles upon a modern trailer hidden in the woods marked "MANOSPHERE". Inside, she finds instant ramen, a television, and a man who shockingly refers to her as "Mama". Terrified and confused, Natalie flees back to the farmhouse, only to be met by a grown woman driving a modern car. The woman is Clementine, Natalie’s eldest daughter from her past life. Clementine reveals that she has arrived with a warrant to take the younger children away due to extreme claims of child abuse and neglect.

The horrifying truth comes into focus: there was no time travel. The year 1855 was a profound, years-long psychological break. Following the collapse of her influencer empire, Natalie suffered a severe dissociative episode, constructing a delusional pioneer reality while completely abandoning her modern maternal responsibilities for roughly fifteen years. The novel flashes forward five years later to find Natalie serving a prison sentence for child neglect. Stripped of her aesthetic, her platform, and her family, she finally sits down for a journalistic interview with a former college roommate and reads the first chapter of a memoir written by her daughter Mary. Ultimately, Yesteryear serves as a dark, compelling exploration of the distance between online performance and lived reality, offering a brilliant critique of nostalgia and the devastating consequences of living for an audience.