The Lost Wife

ALFRED A. KNOPF, April 2023

A searing, immersive novel about a seminal and shameful moment in America’s conquest of the West. Drawing partly from a true story, it brings to life a devastating Native American revolt and the woman caught in the middle of the conflict.

In the summer of 1855, Sarah Brinton abandons her husband and child to make the long and difficult journey from Rhode Island to Minnesota Territory, where she plans to reunite with a childhood friend. When she arrives at a small frontier post on the edge of the prairie without family or friends and with no prospect of work or money, she quickly remarries and has two children. Anticipating unease and hardship at the Indian Agency, where her husband Dr. John Brinton is the new resident physician, Sarah instead finds acceptance and kinship among the Sioux women at the nearby reservation.

The Sioux tribes, however, are wary of the white settlers and resent the rampant theft of their land. Promised payments by the federal government are never made, and starvation and disease soon begin to decimate their community. Tragically and inevitably, this leads to the Sioux Uprising of 1862. During the conflict, Sarah and her children are abducted by a Sioux warrior, who protects her, but because she sympathizes with her captors, Sarah becomes an outcast to the white settlers. In the end, she is lost to both worlds.

Intimate and raw, The Lost Wife is a brilliantly subversive tale of the conquest of the American West.

Order the Book:

  • “In replacing long-held legends with traumas, Moore’s steely vision of the American West recognizes few, if any, heroes. The result is a repudiation — solemn yet stirring — of the idealized fable of the American West.”

    The Washington Post — April 2023

  • “Susanna Moore’s remarkable new novel [is]...an emotionally intense portrait of a resourceful woman...while the tone of “The Lost Wife” is intimate, the sweep of history and of a vast continent is nonetheless palpable.”

    The Wall Street Journal — April 2023

  • “Another hallmark of Moore’s work is an unsparing intimacy with violence and suffering. The Lost Wife is no exception. I was fascinated by the details of mid-19th-century life for a woman.”

    Air Mail, Stephanie Danler — April 2023

  • “The story has it all: the bloody hell of war…revenge, corruption, injustice. Even some romance…A vivid tale of frontier adventure and peril.”

    Minneapolis Star-Tribune — April 2023

  • Author Susanna Moore joins Zibby to discuss The Lost Wife, a stirring and immersive historical novel about a white woman who sympathizes with her Native American captors after they abduct her and her two children during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, and is thus vilified and rejected by the white settlers.

    Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books — April 2023

  • “Moore returns with a bracing and daring account of a woman who tries to build a new life on the American frontier...This is a masterwork of Americana.”

    Publishers Weekly, starred review — February 2023

  • “Based partly on a woman’s account of her abduction along with her children during the Sioux Uprising in 1862, Moore’s novel is a tense, absorbing tale of adversity and survival. . . . Moore has imagined a brave, perceptive woman with no illusions about the hypocrisy of those who proclaim themselves civilized. . . . A devastating tale rendered with restrained serenity.”

    Kirkus Reviews, starred review — February 2023

  • “A compelling tale of survival, loyalty and exploitation.”

    The Bookseller (UK) — February 2023

  • “It’s fitting that The Lost Wife . . . should directly follow Miss Aluminum, [Moore’s] lustrous 2020 memoir; this book, like that one, tells the story of a woman continuously transformed by difficult relationships and sweeping changes of circumstance. . . . Moore’s voice is cool and sure, rich with detail.”

    Vogue — April 2023

  • “Moore is a master of smallness. Her deceptively simple sentences are like geysers. The churning energy underneath is violent, animal and sexual.”

    Los Angeles Times — April 2023

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Miss Aluminum