Yesteryear | She Built the Prison — Then Forgot It Was Hers

The Book Brief Project · Jul 13, 2026 · 16m

Yesteryear begins with a fantasy that millions of people already know how to recognize: the perfect traditional life. Caro Claire Burke gives Natalie Heller Mills a ranch, six children, millions of followers and an online existence built to make domesticity look effortless — then removes the cameras, the staff, the technology and eventually the century itself.Natalie wakes in 1855 inside a brutal version of the life she has spent years selling. Her phone is gone, her pregnancy has vanished, four children call her Mama, and the domestic world that once made her famous has become physical labor…