Yesteryear: The Trad Wife Novel Exploring The Realities Of The Trend

via @caroclaireburke

If you’re looking for a new book to dig into this month, then we highly recommend you check out Carl Claire Burke’s debut novel, Yesteryear. 

The story follows a woman named Natalie, who shares snippets of her perfect, trad wife life to her fans on social media. Baking bread, homeschooling her children, looking after the house and doting over her typical cowboy husband, Natalie believes she has it all, and wants everyone else to believe that too. But when she wakes up one morning in the year 1805, she’s forced to experience a much more realistic version of her online facade as a peasant settler wife. 

Burke uses this time travel twist to explore themes relevant to pop culture today, mainly the rise of “trad wife” influencers on social media and the realities of the influencer industry, as well as more overarching topics like conservatism, religion and feminism in a satirical yet complex way. 

Although it was only released this week, there’s no doubt that this book will be the topic of discussion among so many book lovers and clubs. The modern retelling of the life of a traditional wife has been at the centre of social media for a while now.

 

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Think about the chokehold that influencers like Ballerina Farm and Nara Smith have had on TikTok recently, as well as the success of reality TV shows like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Our fascination with the idea of a woman who rejects modern femininity in favour of a more “old-fashioned” way of living might have gotten out of hand, especially since these depictions of traditional living are often misleading and inaccurate.

Burke does a great job in calling out these inaccuracies in this novel as her heroine experiences the true reality of the stay-at-home wife when there’s no camera or supportive audience. 

It looks like this novel will be on our minds for a while, because despite only being released for sale this week, there’s already a film adaptation in the works, with actress Anne Hathaway signed to produce and star in it. 

Yesteryear has already been dubbed the lead debut of 2026 by Fourth Estate, and book critics all over the place can’t seem to sing their praises loud enough, so if you want to be part of a very relevant and entertaining conversation, give this a read asap!