Book Discussion Group

NOTE: This book discussion will not be held at the DAI. We will be announcing the location for the meeting soon--please check our page for updates! Thank you!

We’ll read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear is a darkly funny and unsettling satire about Natalie Heller Mills, a popular social-media influencer who presents herself as the picture-perfect traditional wife and mother, living a wholesome pioneer lifestyle on a family ranch. Behind the polished online image, however, her life is far less idyllic, with nannies, producers, and carefully managed content helping to maintain the illusion.

Then Natalie suddenly awakens in what appears to be a brutal version of life in 1855, without modern conveniences or the support systems that made her “traditional” lifestyle possible. As she struggles to survive, she begins to confront the enormous gap between romanticizing the past and actually living it.

The novel explores tradition, faith, motherhood, marriage, social-media performance, fame, and the expectations placed on women. Burke uses Natalie’s increasingly bizarre situation to question whether the idealized versions of womanhood promoted online are authentic—or simply another form of performance.

For discussion, the book raises fascinating questions about why people romanticize the past, how much of our identity is shaped by performance, whether Natalie is a victim or a willing participant in her own deception, and what “traditional womanhood” really means when stripped of modern conveniences and privilege.

We warmly invite you to join us for a shared reading and open conversation, where reflections and new perspectives are always welcome. No registration is needed — simply come along and be part of the discussion.

5 € I erm. 3 € I FV 2 € I in English

10/20/26 | 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM  Gleißbühlstraße 9, 90402 Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Nürnberg