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 absolutely loved it: so thought-provoking and complex, but also full of moments of beauty and peace. Abra's dilemma electrified me. An extraordinary novel. ' Katherine May 'A joyful and generative novel about running away to make a new home for a new self.' Sarah Moss I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it. Abra has a perfect-seeming life as a wife and mother: until one day, she 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 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 a 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.