Knock on Wood
Published on 24. January 2026
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-9986025-5-4 (ISBN)
Description
First love often breaks hearts, but deep in the woods, it magically makes one beat.
When a boy runs away from his cruel father and into the forest, a lonely tree feels her first stirring. A grove of golden larches is a perfect refuge, unless you're a 200-year-old larch tree who finds herself, for the first time, falling in love.
Edward, the son of a bitter logger, returns to the grove over the years, first as a defiant teenager, then grown into a handsome, but troubled young man. The tree waits for him through each long winter, her heartwood and bark slowly turning to blood and bone, until the day when Edward's destiny, at last, catches up to him . . . and he enters the woods with a saw.
With her first, tentative step, the erstwhile larch must not only stop the man she loves from cutting down her forest, but also decide which world she truly belongs in.
More details
Person
Claire Dean is the pseudonym of novelist Christy Yorke, who lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband, Robert, and Jenny, an imperious Great Dane - aka "The worst dog we've ever had," and the inspiration for her novel GOOD BOY. Christy Yorke published five magical realism adult novels before switching to her pseudonym, Claire Dean, the names of her two children, because she wanted to write a book of her heart for each of them. For her daughter, Claire, GIRLWOOD is the story of a girl who finds her strength and a bit of magic in the woods, and for her son, Dean, SPIRIT CALLER is the tale of one boy's journey to adulthood, and the spirit guides who help him along the way. GIRLWOOD was meant to bring a little wonder to girls everywhere, while its sequel, KNOCK ON WOOD, is for the lovely, strong women those girls have grown into, for maidens and mothers and grandmothers and crones. When the author isn't writing, she's likely playing in the woods with her two beautiful grandsons or working in the garden.