Gaining Ground

'I've never read a book so authentically frightening . . . Beneath the radical disquiet is a beautiful hymn to the undeniable hearts and minds of women.' Sarah Hall

I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.

Gaining Ground by Joan Barfoot tells the story of Abra, a woman with a perfect-seeming life as a wife and mother, who one day 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 the 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?

Rediscovered after almost half a century, Joan Barfoot's Gaining Ground (1978) is both a radical 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.

'One of those rare books which put you in touch with yourself as deftly and as deeply as The Bell Jar.' Nell Dunn