Unearthed after half a century, this radical portrait of a woman who leaves her family to live alone in a woodland cabin will pierce the heart of anybody who has ever wanted to escape.

'I've never read a book so authentically frightening . . . Beneath the radical disquiet is a beautiful hymn to the undeniable hearts and minds of women.' Sarah Hall

I swear I loved them all, and I did the best I could. And then I left them, left all of it.

Abra has a perfect-seeming life as a wife and mother: until one day, she walks away, leaving only a note asking her family not to look for her.
In a woodland cabin, her new life alone begins. There are no mirrors, no clocks, no memories: just the squirrels breathing in the forest, and silence of vegetables growing.
Years later, a young woman arrives, and the past-flashes begin. Daughter? A strange word. Is this her? And what will this mean?

Rediscovered after almost half a century, Joan Barfoot's Gaining Ground (1978) is a both a radical meditation on living on your own terms and an exquisite work of art. It calls to anybody who has ever wanted to escape - who has asked what it costs to be wild, to be sane, to be free.

'One of those rare books which put you in touch with yourself as deftly and as deeply as The Bell Jar.' Nell Dunn

Details

ISBN13: 9780571399888
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition: Main
Publication Date: 03 Nov 2026
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Joan Barfoot (born 1946) is the author of eleven novels. Her books, which reviewers have celebrated as 'harrowing and hilarious' and 'gloriously subversive', have been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. A recipient of the Marian Engel Award, she has also been a journalist during much of her career. She lives in London, Ontario, Canada.

Reviews

"This is a propulsive meditation on what we want and why we want it...I couldn't put it down."--Emily Temple, Literary Hub

"At once an indictment of traditionalism and a beautiful meditation on finding one's true path, Gaining Ground should be considered a contemporary classic of feminist pastoralism."--Makenna Goodman, author of Helen of Nowhere

"A wonderful slow burn of a book and Barfoot's originality and control remain exciting, nearly half a century on. It is great to see this reissue put the novel at the centre of things, where it belongs."--Anne Enright, The Guardian

"Read it and feel vicariously emboldened, and then join me in digging out more of Barfoot's 11-strong backlist."--Susie Mesure, The Spectator

"Brilliantly unsettling....I can't remember the last novel that made me sit so uncomfortably with conflicting emotions--or admire it more for refusing to resolve them."--Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Times (UK)

"Gaining Ground has been a feminist cult classic since 1978. Devoured by me as a teenager in the 1980s and now exuberantly revived by Faber, Joan Barfoot's story of a woman who leaves husband and children to strike out on her own seems as defiant and relevant today as it ever was."--Catherine Taylor, Times Literary Supplement

"[A] compulsive read... [Barfoot] writes probing and darkly comic books about ordinary people being pushed to their extremes."--Alice Vincent, The Observer

"An intricately, perfectly mapped journey into self-liberation. It ventures the question: how to live with, rather than against, oneself - an enormous, shimmering question that now lives inside me. I think it will for the rest of my days." --Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital

"Absolutely stunning. One of the great novels of the twentieth century, I think, and profoundly relevant to the present. It felt like liberation, meeting Abra. And I will pack her into my heart moving forward, she has much to teach us!" --Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers

"A haunting book, with an outstanding sense of place and inner space: unsettling as well as memorable."--Margaret Drabble, author of The Seven Sisters

"A modern masterpiece: proactive, radical and deeply moving on motherhood and how we choose to build our lives."--Doireann ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

"A joyful and generative novel about running away to make a true home for a true self."--Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall

"A searing reminder of what we owe to ourselves."--Saba Sams, author of Gunk

"If you want to pick a fight with yourself, pick this book. This is what the best writing does: makes you think, makes you think again, makes you think better."--Claire Kilroy, author of Solider Sailor

"One of those rare books which put you in touch with yourself as deftly and as deeply as The Bell Jar."--Nell Dunn, author of The Muse

"The sheer brilliance of Barfoot's writing is enough to take your breath away. She is among the best prose stylists of her generation."--A Reader's Guide to the Canadian Novel

"Thousands of women will recognise a sister."--Good Housekeeping

"A formidable frontispiece for second-wave feminism and a wildly original novel. I've never read a book so authentically frightening, so rationally subversive and so intuitively exposing."--Sarah Hall, author of Helm

"Thought-provoking and complex, but also full of moments of beauty and peace. It veers deftly between the beauty of the seasons and the hollowing despair of a stifled existence. Abra's dilemma electrified me. An extraordinary novel."--Katherine May, author of The Electricity of Every Living Thing: a Woman's Walk In the Wild to Find Her Way Home

"Beneath its glassy surface, the currents of this book are vast and dark and dangerous. Weeks after finishing it, I still feel caught in the vortex of its desperately sad - and sadly still relevant - oppositions; still hear the silent howl of its inarticulable pain."--Lucy Caldwell, author of Devotions

"I was gripped by this radical, deeply felt novel, finding myself increasingly immersed and moved by its fresh, insistent narrative of loss and becoming. I know this book will have a new life of being discussed, recommended and passed from friend to friend."--Megan Hunter, author of Days of Light