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Five years after the pandemic shut down the world, covid is still proving to be a novel virus for American fiction. Of course, there are classic stories of isolation and grief, such as Michael Cunningham’s exquisite "Day." In the work of other writers, covid has mutated in surprising ways. Last year, for instance, Regina Porter used the closures as the basis for her sharp social satire, "The Rich People Have Gone Away.��

And now, Amity Gaige follows the long shadow of the pandemic into the woods where she finds an imperiled nurse named Valerie Gillis on the Appalachian Trail. “Heartwood,�� Gaige’s fifth novel, is a thriller that could work without a recollection of the pandemic but draws its resonance from our shared memory of that ordeal.

“No one hikes two thousand miles because they’re happy,�� Valerie says. “Everybody’s got a reason to hike the trail. �� What was mine? Well, I suppose it was to heal.��

A born caregiver, Valerie “became a nurse to fix things.�� But in a hospital under viral siege �� “in an absolute vacuum of dignity�� with twice as many patients as she was supposed to have and the alarm constantly blaring “CODE BLUE�� �� Valerie and her colleagues found themselves “crushed between empathy and impotence.��

To recover from that trial �� that impossible choice between being a hero or falling apart �� Valerie took a five-month leave of absence to walk the Appalachian Trail. She was doing it alone with the logistical support of her husband, Gregory. But along the way, Valerie realized she didn’t love Gregory anymore, and, ever the stickler for honesty, she told him. Soon after, somewhere in the wilds of Maine, in “a claustrophobic wall of foliage,�� she vanished.

You think you know where this is headed. Trust me, you don’t....

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