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The Gatepost: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 26 May 26From the author of
The Afterlife
One woman's quest to find her father pushes her beyond the boundaries of space, time, and the human mind.
Two decades ago, Esme Weatherhead's archaeologist father wrote a bestselling book on the use of hallucinogens in ancient Mesoamerican shamanism—and then disappeared. Convinced he's still alive, Esme has never stopped searching for him. And when she stumbles upon notes about a hidden cave on their rural Vermont property, her quest gets a new focus.
Esme hires geological consultant Lucas St. Pierre to help locate and explore the cave, and her hunch that it has something to do with her father's disappearance quickly pays off. Inside the winding passages they discover an ancient artifact, left there by the missing man and the indigenous healer who taught him how to access a portal to a secret underworld through the use of psilocybin mushrooms.
And when Esme and Lucas attempt to recreate their hallucinogenic pilgrimage, the journey brings them glimpses of otherworldly landscapes and even, occasionally, Esme's father. But their discovery of the artifact hasn't gone unnoticed. An old family friend—now a tech entrepreneur—wants to harness its power, and he'll destroy anyone who stands in his way . . .
Perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi and Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood, Tim Weed's The Gatepost blends modern science and ancient cosmology to take readers on a mind-bending odyssey, offering glimpses into worlds beyond our own.
Two decades ago, Esme Weatherhead's archaeologist father wrote a bestselling book on the use of hallucinogens in ancient Mesoamerican shamanism—and then disappeared. Convinced he's still alive, Esme has never stopped searching for him. And when she stumbles upon notes about a hidden cave on their rural Vermont property, her quest gets a new focus.
Esme hires geological consultant Lucas St. Pierre to help locate and explore the cave, and her hunch that it has something to do with her father's disappearance quickly pays off. Inside the winding passages they discover an ancient artifact, left there by the missing man and the indigenous healer who taught him how to access a portal to a secret underworld through the use of psilocybin mushrooms.
And when Esme and Lucas attempt to recreate their hallucinogenic pilgrimage, the journey brings them glimpses of otherworldly landscapes and even, occasionally, Esme's father. But their discovery of the artifact hasn't gone unnoticed. An old family friend—now a tech entrepreneur—wants to harness its power, and he'll destroy anyone who stands in his way . . .
Perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi and Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood, Tim Weed's The Gatepost blends modern science and ancient cosmology to take readers on a mind-bending odyssey, offering glimpses into worlds beyond our own.
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Expected publication May 26, 2026
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About the author
Tim Weed
5 books200 followers Tim Weed is the author of four books of fiction. His recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was a best books of 2025 pick from Library Journal and the Toronto Star. He’s won multiple Writer’s Digest Annual Fiction Awards and his work has been shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, the Fish International Short Story Award, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress, the New Rivers Many Voices Project, and many others. Tim's essays and articles have appeared in Writers Digest, Literary Hub, The Revelator, The Millions, The Writer’s Chronicle, Talking Points Memo, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere.
Read more at the author's official website.
Read more at the author's official website.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
In THE GATEPOST, as in his previous novel, THE AFTERLIFE PROJECT, Tim Weed takes on the existential challenge of climate change and the ways people confront it. He manages to avoid preaching and lecturing by weaving the elements artfully into his plots, and by challenging his main characters to address the effects in their own lives. Whereas he explores the science of climate change in AFTERLIFE through characters directly involved in confronting it, in GATEPOST he digs deeper into the philosophical and spiritual challenges the threat presents to those of us not as directly involved with addressing it. In every generation, there are writers whose stories to reflect social issues of their time and place, and Weed is showing himself to be an outstanding representative of his.
Both novels are engaging romantic adventures in which his characters display a worldliness based on hard experience and the courage to face life without illusions. Because they’re old enough to have taken their lumps, the ways they approach their developing relationships are grounded without being cynical or naïve. Presenting them as more seekers than strivers gives him the opportunity to explore issues of spirituality and philosophy in a manner that is fully oriented to our time while simultaneously resurrecting and illuminating Mesoamerican practices and beliefs. The depth of his interest and research enables him to draw us into that world and, if not to share, at least to appreciate his passion for it. By showing the different ways his characters search for meaning in life and their efforts to make a contribution, he tells us a lot about ourselves and our own culture.
As usual, his elegant writing firmly grounds us in place through vivid and immersive descriptions of the natural world, both in his native Vermont and Oaxaca, Mexico. In GATEHOUSE, his characters use psychedelics in a serious quest for understanding. Weed uses their spiritual experimentation effectively to explore the stresses we all experience when confronting the impending climate catastrophe. What is most remarkable is his use of the gradual development of romantic commitment between his two main characters to help them maintain hope. The two parallel stories follow father and daughter. Sixteen years previous, Esme’s father disappeared when she was twelve and is presumed dead. We follow his quest, in an earlier timeline, to literally go deep, using psychedelics in the presence of an ancient idol while attempting to recreate a Mesoamerican spiritual journey. In present time, Esme tries to use the same psychedelics and statue to somehow connect with him by recreating his experience. Weed uses their experiences to illustrate the ways we might confront the inevitability of death, not just of the individual but of humanity, life, and the planet itself, and he manages it all without becoming maudlin. While he has his characters face these challenges, he grants them the courage to maintain hope as they confront the essential hopelessness of the human condition, and he even leaves us with a vivid image of a graceful end.
In that, both this and his earlier novel represent a rare gift to his readers.
Both novels are engaging romantic adventures in which his characters display a worldliness based on hard experience and the courage to face life without illusions. Because they’re old enough to have taken their lumps, the ways they approach their developing relationships are grounded without being cynical or naïve. Presenting them as more seekers than strivers gives him the opportunity to explore issues of spirituality and philosophy in a manner that is fully oriented to our time while simultaneously resurrecting and illuminating Mesoamerican practices and beliefs. The depth of his interest and research enables him to draw us into that world and, if not to share, at least to appreciate his passion for it. By showing the different ways his characters search for meaning in life and their efforts to make a contribution, he tells us a lot about ourselves and our own culture.
As usual, his elegant writing firmly grounds us in place through vivid and immersive descriptions of the natural world, both in his native Vermont and Oaxaca, Mexico. In GATEHOUSE, his characters use psychedelics in a serious quest for understanding. Weed uses their spiritual experimentation effectively to explore the stresses we all experience when confronting the impending climate catastrophe. What is most remarkable is his use of the gradual development of romantic commitment between his two main characters to help them maintain hope. The two parallel stories follow father and daughter. Sixteen years previous, Esme’s father disappeared when she was twelve and is presumed dead. We follow his quest, in an earlier timeline, to literally go deep, using psychedelics in the presence of an ancient idol while attempting to recreate a Mesoamerican spiritual journey. In present time, Esme tries to use the same psychedelics and statue to somehow connect with him by recreating his experience. Weed uses their experiences to illustrate the ways we might confront the inevitability of death, not just of the individual but of humanity, life, and the planet itself, and he manages it all without becoming maudlin. While he has his characters face these challenges, he grants them the courage to maintain hope as they confront the essential hopelessness of the human condition, and he even leaves us with a vivid image of a graceful end.
In that, both this and his earlier novel represent a rare gift to his readers.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Tim Weed's latest novel explores the role of psychedelic experiences in ancient indigenous ritual, weaving a convincing, exciting narrative with well-researched cultural references. The Gatepost's lyrical descriptions of natural environments are even richer than those in the author's previous works, and he returns again, with great success, to the principles of quantum mechanics, perfectly integrating what might otherwise be obtuse concepts seamlessly into the story. The reader's mind swims with the possibilities implied by the spooky-action science, even to the point of imagining that the fictional scenario they're reading might exist in some meta-reality.
Informative without being dry, insightful without being preachy, Weed's prose is polished and powerful here, with echoes of Michael Pollan, Crouch's Recursion and the themes of Ancient Apocalypse. For anyone who has peered at their own reflection and wondered what might happen if they reached out and through to the other side, this sci-fi thriller is the transcendent adventure you've been searching for.
Hold on tight, prepare yourself for the journey that begins at The Gatepost.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Podium Publishing for the ARC.
Informative without being dry, insightful without being preachy, Weed's prose is polished and powerful here, with echoes of Michael Pollan, Crouch's Recursion and the themes of Ancient Apocalypse. For anyone who has peered at their own reflection and wondered what might happen if they reached out and through to the other side, this sci-fi thriller is the transcendent adventure you've been searching for.
Hold on tight, prepare yourself for the journey that begins at The Gatepost.
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Podium Publishing for the ARC.
Review of advance copy
This novel has it all - intrigue, suspense, beauty, romance, science, otherworldliness.
Tim Weed's prose is both beautiful and haunting. Beautiful when it's about family, love and nature. Haunting when it's about otherworldliness.
There are four main characters, Esme Weatherhead, Gregory Weatherhead, Lucas St. Pierre and Sebastian Bonney. Gregory is Esme's father, Lucas is Esme's love interest and Sebastian is Gregory's friend and graduate school roommate.
Each of these four characters is searching for something extremely elusive. At times, it's ethereal, at other times, it's material, and then it's somewhere in between.
The story toggles between the 1980s, the early 2000s and 2024 as well as Vermont and Mexico, yet its arc remains consistent. A family is suffering from tragedy. One person does whatever it takes to help them while another does whatever it takes to destroy them.
The twists and turns, coupled with alluring prose, makes this novel a real page turner. It culminates in a whopper of an ending.
Tim Weed's prose is both beautiful and haunting. Beautiful when it's about family, love and nature. Haunting when it's about otherworldliness.
There are four main characters, Esme Weatherhead, Gregory Weatherhead, Lucas St. Pierre and Sebastian Bonney. Gregory is Esme's father, Lucas is Esme's love interest and Sebastian is Gregory's friend and graduate school roommate.
Each of these four characters is searching for something extremely elusive. At times, it's ethereal, at other times, it's material, and then it's somewhere in between.
The story toggles between the 1980s, the early 2000s and 2024 as well as Vermont and Mexico, yet its arc remains consistent. A family is suffering from tragedy. One person does whatever it takes to help them while another does whatever it takes to destroy them.
The twists and turns, coupled with alluring prose, makes this novel a real page turner. It culminates in a whopper of an ending.
January 27, 2026
The Gatepost is a genre-bending novel centered around a woman trying to find her missing father, and an ancient artifact that could hold the key to finding him. External forces are also interested in exploiting this artifact for their own means, making this story an intriguing adventure filled with action, mystery, and mysticism.
The writing in this book causes the reader to care about the main character and her quest to find the truth. The story is heartbreaking, fun, peculiar, and gripping. Readers will enjoy the book’s uniqueness and the escape from reality it provides.
My thanks to the publisher for sending me an Advance Reader Copy of this book. It was provided to me through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Everything stated in my review is my own opinion written in my own words.
The writing in this book causes the reader to care about the main character and her quest to find the truth. The story is heartbreaking, fun, peculiar, and gripping. Readers will enjoy the book’s uniqueness and the escape from reality it provides.
My thanks to the publisher for sending me an Advance Reader Copy of this book. It was provided to me through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Everything stated in my review is my own opinion written in my own words.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Another great book from this author. Very readable with well developed characters. Interesting dive into Mesoamerican archaeology and strange goings on. Enjoyed afterlife project slightly more probably with my interests leaning to dystopian worlds. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews