TROVE
One woman’s search for buried gold becomes a search for meaning, memory and midlife clarity
ABOUT THE BOOK
Trove: A Woman’s Search for Truth and Buried Treasure is the true story of a woman whose life is up-ended when she begins an armchair treasure hunt — a search for $10,000 worth of gold coins buried in Brooklyn, of all places, with a man who is not her husband. In this eloquent, hilarious, sharply realized memoir, Sandra A. Miller grapples with the death of her difficult mother and the regret and confusion that so often accompanies middle age.
In a very real way, Miller has spent her life hunting for buried treasure. As a child, she trained herself to find things: dropped hair clips, shiny bits of broken glass, discarded lighters. Looking to escape from her volatile parents and often-unhappy childhood, Miller found deeper meaning, and a good deal of hope, in each of these objects.
Now an adult and facing the loss of her last living parent-her mother, who is at once cold, difficult and wildly funny, Miller finds herself, as she so often did as a little girl, pressed against a wall of her own longing. Her search for gold, which soon becomes an obsession, forces her to dredge up painful pieces of her past, confront the true source of her sorrow and finally discover what it is she has been looking for all these years.
Gold-medal winner of the 2020 Nautilus Book Award for Memoir, Gold-medal winner of the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for memoir
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sandra A. Miller’s writing has appeared in over one-hundred publications, including The Christian Science Monitor, Spirituality & Health, Yankee, Family Fun, and The Boston Globe Magazine, for which she is a regular correspondent. One of her essays was turned into a short film called “Wait,” directed by Trudie Styler and starring Kerry Washington. She has taught in Europe and Japan and now teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Her first novel, Wednesdays at One, was published in 2023.
REVIEWS & PRAISE
“A stirring memoir that beautifully and humorously captures the pain of unresolved loss.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS
“For so many of us, the obsessions of our future selves are sown into the wounds of our past. This is so clearly the case with Sandra Miller, an immensely gifted memoirist . . . The prose here is spare yet lyrical, evocative and painstakingly honest, and Trove, itself, is a treasure.”
— ANDRE DUBUS III, National Book Award finalist for House of Sand and Fog
Entertaining and intriguing, Trove reads like a guide and map for navigating our own traumas… Miller’s search is a reminder that we should never stop searching for the answers that may set us free.
— FOREWORD REVIEWS
“The narrative flows effortlessly with a casual style that is introspective but never maudlin… Trove is an excellent memoir.”
— MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“Trove grabs readers by the heartstrings and whisks us along on her life’s journey. Miller’s story is a marvelous, sometimes magical adventure that is also urgent, heartbreaking. Miller is eloquent, witty, and grippingly honest she searches for love and treasure, within and without. Trove is that rare treasure of a book—a compelling story that touches your heart and soul.”
— MAUREEN STANTON, author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood
“Sandra Miller's writing is straight to the heart magick. Going beyond words, she makes you want more. Her writing moves you to explore and ponder; and best of all, it opens up the imagination to all things possible.”
— DAMIEN ECHOLS, New York Times bestselling author of Life After Death
“You will not read a page of this book without thinking, Oh my God, I have so been there. Trove is a hilarious, heart-breaking page-turner about one woman's relentless search for the treasures life has to offer: romantic love, parental approval, a decent career, and some shred of meaning in this crazy world.”
— ERICA FERENCIK, author of Into the Jungle
“With dazzling prose, keen observation, and laugh-out-loud humor, Trove is an essential book for women braving middle age, or anyone looking back in life before they surge forward. Sandra Miller writes about marriage, parenting, aging parents, and the quest for creative fulfillment with wisdom and insight, and with an honesty that is as shocking as it is satisfying.”
— LISA CAREY, author of The Stolen Child
