India, July 4 -- There is striking irony at the heart of Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear. The protagonist, Natalie Heller Mills has built a lucrative career on social media, romanticising traditional womanhood aka tradwife culture. Then, quite literally, she gets what she wished for! Natalie finds herself in the 19th century, where the gap between the aesthetic and lived reality becomes impossible to ignore: the endless labour of keeping a household running, the dangers surrounding childbirth, and women's lack of autonomy. Burke takes a premise that could have easily become broad satire and grounds it in something far more thoughtful. The restraint makes the narrative effective; rather than sensationalising history or ridiculing the social media trend, the author lets daily realities quietly dismantle the tradwife fantasy Natalie spent years selling. Yet, Burke refuses to mock or vilify her: Natalie's gradual reckoning lends the novel its emotional weight. That said, the purple prose slows down momentum, underlining emotions that have already landed. Unlike canonical works such as The Handmaid's Tale or Little House on the Prairie, Burke is less interested in pioneer romance and more in the stories people tell about the past. She underlines that nostalgia is not about history, but a longing for belonging. And if nostalgia is history with the rough edges sanded away, Yesteryear is determined to put them back. Title: Yesteryear Author: Caro Claire Burke Publisher: HarperCollins Price: Rs.599...