Yesteryear: A Novel

A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1805—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.

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 Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? 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 brutal 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 received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the co-host of Diabolical Lies, a politics and culture podcast. YESTERYEAR is her first novel.

“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