The Woman Who Stayed is a haunting, lyrical novel inspired by the real-life story of Jane Cooper, a young woman who, in the 1970s, vanished into the wilds of southern Tasmania to live alone on remote De Witt Island.
Set against the wind-lashed cliffs and dense bushland of one of Australia’s most isolated regions, the novel traces Jane’s flight from mainland life and her search for meaning in solitude. As the seasons shift and seabirds circle above, Jane builds shelter, befriends penguins and goats, crafts a bell from driftwood, and arranges stones into a spiral that becomes both ritual and reckoning.
But she is not as alone as she believes. Letters arrive. A fisherman drifts into her story. A phantom figure, R.H., emerges from mist and memory. And woven through her journals and field notes are fragments of folklore—both real and imagined—that echo the landscape’s deep-time history.
This is not a tale of survival against nature, but of communion with it. Told with poetic restraint and naturalist detail, The Woman Who Stayed blurs the line between fact and fiction, history and myth, anchoring readers in a liminal space where memory, loss, and land converge.
Perfect for readers of Charlotte Wood, Delia Owens, and Hannah Kent, this is a novel about the cost and clarity of isolation, the echo of untold stories, and the fierce pull of wilderness.
The Woman Who Stayed is a haunting, lyrical novel inspired by the real-life story of Jane Cooper, a young woman who, in the 1970s, vanished into the wilds of southern Tasmania to live alone on remote De Witt Island.
Set against the wind-lashed cliffs and dense bushland of one of Australia’s most isolated regions, the novel traces Jane’s flight from mainland life and her search for meaning in solitude. As the seasons shift and seabirds circle above, Jane builds shelter, befriends penguins and goats, crafts a bell from driftwood, and arranges stones into a spiral that becomes both ritual and reckoning.
But she is not as alone as she believes. Letters arrive. A fisherman drifts into her story. A phantom figure, R.H., emerges from mist and memory. And woven through her journals and field notes are fragments of folklore—both real and imagined—that echo the landscape’s deep-time history.
This is not a tale of survival against nature, but of communion with it. Told with poetic restraint and naturalist detail, The Woman Who Stayed blurs the line between fact and fiction, history and myth, anchoring readers in a liminal space where memory, loss, and land converge.
Perfect for readers of Charlotte Wood, Delia Owens, and Hannah Kent, this is a novel about the cost and clarity of isolation, the echo of untold stories, and the fierce pull of wilderness.
Image 1 of 24
Image 2 of 24
Image 3 of 24
Image 4 of 24
Image 5 of 24
Image 6 of 24
Image 7 of 24
Image 8 of 24
Image 9 of 24
Image 10 of 24
Image 11 of 24
Image 12 of 24
Image 13 of 24
Image 14 of 24
Image 15 of 24
Image 16 of 24
Image 17 of 24
Image 18 of 24
Image 19 of 24
Image 20 of 24
Image 21 of 24
Image 22 of 24
Image 23 of 24
Image 24 of 24