The Lost Wife

Winner of the 2023 David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction

'A breathtaking tale of love and war' Telegraph

'Moore's voice is cool and sure, rich with detail' Vogue

'A riveting account of one woman's journey' Guardian

Summer, 1855. Sarah Brinton sets out from Rhode Island, leaving an abusive husband and child behind to head west across the country, until her journey ends in Minnesota Territory, on lands claimed both by white settlers and Native Americans. There she finds herself another husband, a Yale-educated doctor who works on the nearby Sioux reservation, and settles into a new life.

Sarah's days on the edge of the prairie are idyllic if tough, as she befriends and works with the Sioux women. But trouble is brewing. The Sioux tribes are wary of the white settlers and resent the rampant theft of their land.

When the Sioux take their fate into their own hands, Sarah's loyalties are split between the Sioux and her fellow white settlers. As the conflict rages, she finds herself lost to both worlds.

The first novel in ten years from the author of In the Cut and Miss Aluminium, this is a story about freedom and oppression, intimacy and violence, and a woman caught in the crossfire of one of the most seminal and shameful moments in American history.