Yesteryear
By Caro Claire Burke
Knopf
ISBN: 9780593804216
400pp.

Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear has been hailed as one of the most divisive yet widely discussed novels of 2026. Social media is abuzz with varied, perhaps even contradictory, opinions about this debut novel. Be that as it may, the hype surrounding a book should never serve as the real measure of its literary merit.

At its core, the novel bears echoes of the dystopian elements in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, revealing how female autonomy is systematically dismantled in a patriarchal social order.

Yesteryear features Natalie Heller Mills, a ‘trad-wife’ influencer who takes to social media to advocate a romanticised lifestyle of outmoded domesticity for financial gain. She lives with her wealthy husband, Caleb, and their six children on a pastoral homestead in Idaho, an idyllic dwelling that is fittingly named Yesteryear Ranch. Through her social media account, Natalie sustains the illusion of an idealised American pioneer life, shaped by Christian values and conventional gender norms.

As expected, this seemingly utopian life is little more than a fantasy, designed to deceive even her most suspecting followers. Once she stops filming content for her social media page, Natalie is entirely dependent on a retinue of nannies to raise her children. In addition, a loyal team of producers helps her maintain a carefully curated digital facade.

A trad-wife influencer who makes a living selling an idealised version of domesticity finds herself trapped in the very past she romanticises in one of this year’s most polarising novels

The opening chapter reveals how the undeniable cracks in her picture-perfect domestic life have become impossible to ignore. Clementine, Natalie’s eldest daughter, is deeply unsettled by her mother’s obsession with preserving her online image. To make matters worse, a foolish and incompetent Caleb is romantically involved with a member of her production team. This devastating secret threatens to shatter the empire of lies Natalie has so meticulously cultivated.

Amid these challenges, Burke introduces an unusual yet brilliant complication into the narrative, one that spares Yesteryear from lapsing into yet another formulaic tale of deception. Natalie wakes up one morning to find Yesteryear Ranch in a dilapidated condition, stripped of all modern conveniences. Beyond these physical transformations, Natalie notices that the familiar rhythms of her household have also changed overnight.

An older, tyrannical Caleb exerts his authority over the entire household and the children on the ranch bear no resemblance to those she gave birth to. Natalie soon realises that she has been transported to 1855. Burke’s novel alternates between Natalie’s bleak past and bewildering present, and documents her struggle to locate herself in a world that has been inexplicably altered.

Genre conventions would have us believe that characters in time travel fiction are usually plucked out of the present and transported to the past to reverse a wrong or find a doorway to redemption. In the Back to the Future films, Marty McFly makes several excursions to other timelines to escape difficult situations and salvage what is in danger of being lost. In Yesteryear, Natalie finds herself trapped in a bygone era in which she must confront the realities of the conventional life she has glorified for profit. At first, readers might perceive this as a form of glorious comeuppance, whereby Natalie can be suitably chastened for her problematic beliefs.

However, Burke doesn’t employ the time travel trope to mould her protagonist into a beacon of virtue. Instead, she uses it as a doorway into Natalie’s complex psyche, fractured by a lifetime of battling traumas without proper guidance. On the face of it, Natalie is driven by the compulsion to maintain her life as a privileged ‘trad-wife’ influencer. Upon closer inspection, she is haunted by the unresolved trauma of growing up in a devoutly Christian milieu plagued by constant surveillance.

Throughout her life, Natalie copes with adversity by using perfection as a crutch. In fact, her actions are propelled by a misguided quest for perfection long after she leaves her childhood home to explore new intellectual horizons at Harvard University. Augmented by her need for public validation, this obsession with perceived perfection steadily becomes an everyday performance. As Natalie’s circumstances spiral out of control, she resorts to denial, using it as a shield as well as a sword against the world.

Yesteryear is a speculative, darkly satirical text that offers a powerful indictment of our modern-day online culture. For some readers, this interpretation runs the risk of coming across as slightly narrow. On a broader scale, the novel turns an intimate gaze on ‘trad-wife’ influencers, to explore the potential dangers of performative womanhood.

Natalie’s relentless efforts to adapt to superficial ideals of femininity not only steer her away from herself, but also compel her to subtly exert control over her children. The novel raises some pertinent points about the significance of healing from the past, lest we cause unintended harm to others. Above all, Yesteryear offers a biting critique of privilege and its discontents in Western societies.

Natalie’s unlikeability renders her a difficult character to wholeheartedly appreciate. Even so, readers are advised against harbouring reservations about a protagonist who is evidently too delusional to recognise the value of redemption. Any attempts she makes to redeem herself are, at best, clumsy and ineffective, complicated by her deep psychological wounds.

Motherhood is a dominant theme in the novel, but it isn’t tackled in a predictable manner. While Natalie doesn’t resist the maternal instinct, she views it as a portal towards achieving an idealised goal. Parenting, therefore, is a burdensome task for her and her relationship with her children remains superficial.

As the novel progresses, Natalie’s numerous pregnancies become a curse of sorts. Instead of doing something to rectify her situation, Natalie allows her own postpartum challenges to go largely unaddressed. That said, Yesteryear’s controversial climax reduces the postpartum experience to a farcical plot device for dramatic effect.

At times, the novel seems to be a triumph of premise over execution. Yesteryear could have benefitted from substantial trimming. In an effort to explore Natalie’s complex psychology, Burke relies on long expository passages that not only belabour the narrative with excessive details, but also slacken its pace. However, these stylistic choices will not deter readers who are either drawn to the novel’s strong thematic scaffolding or curious about Natalie’s fate.

Conversely, readers who lost interest in the novel or found themselves overwhelmed by Natalie’s intricate web of deceit should consider waiting for the upcoming screen adaptation of the novel by Amazon MGM Studios. Watching the legendary Anne Hathaway play Natalie might make it easier for them to understand the protagonist’s motivations.

The reviewer is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Typically Tanya and No Funeral for Nazia. X: @TahaKehar

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, November 15th, 2026