Wild Aster: A Novel

"A gentle, generous portrait of a twentieth-century life that fired my imagination. Each life in this novel, however seemingly ordinary, holds worlds of longing." -Colum McCann, New York Times Bestselling author of Twist and Let the Great World Spin

"Wild Aster ... tells one woman's ordinary, extraordinary, defiant story. Anna Hogeland's unorthodox portraits of motherhood, family, friendship, and mid-century womanhood are ... fervent, complex, and, best of all, unexpected."-Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is and Enormous Wings

Mae Smith starts her life as a stolen good: her biological mother, Ida, kidnaps her from her adoptive parents, and Mae grows up on the run, constantly changing towns and names, never able to find a home. After her mother's death, Mae is determined to live a different kind of life. But over the next half century, as she reinvents herself against the backdrop of the Depression and Second World War and pursues stability amid the personal upheavals of marriage and motherhood, she must reckon with the choices she's made and life's inexorable turns.

For readers of Alice McDermott, Anita Diamant, and Maggie Shipstead, Wild Aster explores the price of security, the drive to be a different mother than your own, and the daily gains and losses that define who we become. Ultimately, Mae's story challenges us to confront the choices we make for personal fulfillment and family obligation and the perseverance that even a seemingly ordinary life demands.