Heartwood

By: Amity Gaige

An impulse purchase in the Denver Airport turned out to be a true page turner! The book cover claims it is a suspenseful story about a middle aged hiker who vanishes walking the Appalachian Trail, but it is so much more. The characters are interesting, imperfect and come from vastly different backgrounds. It is a story of life, family, and relationships.

“My height enraged the boys, none of whom had yet hit puberty and felt, I could only assume, that I had stolen something from them, that I had questioned the order of things.” p34

“Lena knew that without books, there was nothing but time.” p47

“I watched the woods darken with less panic than I had the night before. Darkness doesn't really fall. It rises. Shadows fill the woods first. The pale sky darkens last.” p167

“One reason Lena never goes to the dining hall is because she does not want to be asked about her "life story.” How do you tell your whole life story on command? How long should you make it? What should be left out for the sake of politeness? What if the parts of your life that interests you the most are the least interesting to others?” p191

“Perhaps Lena is meant to be dead already. She is still alive due to some clerical oversight. She lingers in a fading body, one that is being erased unevenly. She still has her bowels, her grievances, and her obsessions. But she no longer has her legs, nor any fellow feeling, no patience.“ p196

“A fire is a bedtime story. It starts fierce, in high flame, but it's in the dying down that the fire is most itself, when the heat from the embers enters you and hushes all your intentions, both your goodness and your graft.” p302