'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 Gaining Ground: 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 true home for a true 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 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.