From the author of The Water Women comes an epic and intimate historical novel based on the groundbreaking endeavor and healing journey of the first female fire lookout in early twentieth-century America.

It’s 1913 when thirty-four-year-old Hallie Daggett, haunted by loss, takes the unprecedented position as the nation’s first female fire lookout atop California’s Klamath Mountains. Her cabin, a refuge. The forested vistas, a wonder. And her younger sister, Leslie, a lifeline to the world below.

Once a week, Leslie makes the arduous three-hour climb delivering supplies, mail, and companionship. Despite their mother’s efforts to raise “refined” women, Leslie is steadfastly supportive of Hallie, and their relationship is only made stronger. Skeptics give Hallie a few months. She will, in fact, last fourteen remarkable summers overlooking the grand sweep of forest while navigating the sea changes in the world and in her own life.

Told across years of personal and societal upheavals from the early suffrage movement and San Francisco earthquake through WWI, the devastating outbreak of the 1918 flu, and violent discrimination against California’s Chinese communities, The Lookout imagines a remarkable story of quiet heroism, the healing power of sisterhood, and the little-known pioneer who found hope and purpose in the wilderness.