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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 vanished father pushes her beyond the boundaries of space, time, and the human mind.
Esme Weatherhead was twelve years old when her father, an amateur scientist and the author of a bestselling book on Mesoamerican shamanism, walked into the forest on their rural Vermont property and never came back. Twenty years later, she quit her job in San Francisco, got divorced, and moved back home with the goal of writing a book about her father’s life and sudden vanishing.
In the course of her research, Esme uncovers an old field journal that describes a cave on the property she hadn’t known about, experiments involving high doses of psilocybin mushrooms, and a series of strangely vivid hallucinations. After searching unsuccessfully for the cave, she hires Lucas St. Pierre, a local geologist, to help her find it.
Now, as they work to unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Esme and Lucas must confront hidden forces that will test their sanity and put their safety at risk, ultimately leading to new insights about love, death, and the hidden secrets of life on Earth.
Perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, and Richard Powers’s Bewilderment, Tim Weed’s The Gatepost blends modern science and ancient cosmology to take readers on a journey offering hallucinatory glimpses into worlds beyond our own.
Praise for Tim Weed’s The Afterlife Project
“Smart, achingly beautiful, and (yes) a gripping novel of climate cataclysm with a cast of characters I cared about deeply.” ―Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
“A super-smart, super-fun page-turner about a scientist trying to survive alone on Earth in the deep future―and the love of his life trying to travel through time to find him. I can’t think of a single page that didn’t make me pause to admire a sentence, an image, or a particularly fascinating idea. I loved this book.” ―Angie Kim, New York Times–bestselling author of Happiness Falls
“The Afterlife Project isn’t just a story about the end of the world as we know it―it’s an exploration of beauty, and love, and hope in the darkness. If you were a fan of Cloud Atlas, you won’t want to miss this one.” ―Janelle Brown, New York Times–bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise
“This beautiful and heartbreaking book reminds us of what we have, and what we stand to lose. Unforgettable.” ―Danielle Trussoni, New York Times–bestselling author of The Puzzle Master
“Riveting and wrenching and suffused with beauty.” ―Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars
“Weed is a fabulous storyteller working at the top of his game. I predict this novel will become a classic.” —Joseph Monninger, author of The World As We Know It
“It’s a relatively simple idea, but Tim Weed makes it into something special with first-rate nature writing and a story that underlines how connected we all are to our human and physical environmen
Esme Weatherhead was twelve years old when her father, an amateur scientist and the author of a bestselling book on Mesoamerican shamanism, walked into the forest on their rural Vermont property and never came back. Twenty years later, she quit her job in San Francisco, got divorced, and moved back home with the goal of writing a book about her father’s life and sudden vanishing.
In the course of her research, Esme uncovers an old field journal that describes a cave on the property she hadn’t known about, experiments involving high doses of psilocybin mushrooms, and a series of strangely vivid hallucinations. After searching unsuccessfully for the cave, she hires Lucas St. Pierre, a local geologist, to help her find it.
Now, as they work to unravel the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Esme and Lucas must confront hidden forces that will test their sanity and put their safety at risk, ultimately leading to new insights about love, death, and the hidden secrets of life on Earth.
Perfect for fans of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, and Richard Powers’s Bewilderment, Tim Weed’s The Gatepost blends modern science and ancient cosmology to take readers on a journey offering hallucinatory glimpses into worlds beyond our own.
Praise for Tim Weed’s The Afterlife Project
“Smart, achingly beautiful, and (yes) a gripping novel of climate cataclysm with a cast of characters I cared about deeply.” ―Chris Bohjalian, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
“A super-smart, super-fun page-turner about a scientist trying to survive alone on Earth in the deep future―and the love of his life trying to travel through time to find him. I can’t think of a single page that didn’t make me pause to admire a sentence, an image, or a particularly fascinating idea. I loved this book.” ―Angie Kim, New York Times–bestselling author of Happiness Falls
“The Afterlife Project isn’t just a story about the end of the world as we know it―it’s an exploration of beauty, and love, and hope in the darkness. If you were a fan of Cloud Atlas, you won’t want to miss this one.” ―Janelle Brown, New York Times–bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise
“This beautiful and heartbreaking book reminds us of what we have, and what we stand to lose. Unforgettable.” ―Danielle Trussoni, New York Times–bestselling author of The Puzzle Master
“Riveting and wrenching and suffused with beauty.” ―Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars
“Weed is a fabulous storyteller working at the top of his game. I predict this novel will become a classic.” —Joseph Monninger, author of The World As We Know It
“It’s a relatively simple idea, but Tim Weed makes it into something special with first-rate nature writing and a story that underlines how connected we all are to our human and physical environmen
Kindle Edition
Expected publication May 26, 2026
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40 people want to read
About the author
Tim Weed
5 books201 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
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 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 Author
I was very interested in reading Tim’s newest book, which followed the success ofThe Afterlife Project.So when he asked for readers for the manuscript I said, “Hell, yes.”
The book arrived via epub so I was able to download it via my Apple books app. I actually like reading some books electronically, but it isn’t my first choice. However, for Tim’s book it made no difference. Although I am a slow reader, the story kept me captivated and wanting to keep turning pages,
I was thinking, more or less, it was going to be along the same plot lines of the Afterlife Project, thinking there was more to say in that novel. I wanted to know more about this world so many thousands of years into the future, but it was not disappointing in The Gatepost of being introduced to Esmeralda “Esme” Weatherhead, the daughter of her missing father, Gregory, a Mesoamerican archeologist, and his wife, Silvana Rodríguez, from Oaxaca.
A couple other seminal characters include Lucas St. Pierre, a geologist, who becomes a love interest with Esme, and Sebastian Bonney, a British oligarch who unfortunately reminded me of Elon Musk. Debbie, as he is known to Esme, was friends with Gregory, but Esme has no love or respect for him
The other major character is Zoraida, a Zapotec curandera.
As in the Afterlife Project, there are multiple shifts in time from June 2004, when Greg disappears, to March 2024 & July 2024, the current present time of the book. The locations change too: Corinth, Vermont; Montpelier; Oaxaca; to mysterious caves and ancient artifacts.
What makes the book so interesting is the mystery surrounding Gregory’s disappearance.
The use of drugs like Psilocybin mushrooms, which Gregory, and later Esme and Lucas use facilitate the piercing of the veil between the physical and the other unknown world. Esme believes her father is still alive or exists in another dimension.
In lesser hands, these concepts might distract you, and if you are of my age, to think of the book that explored magic mushrooms of the 1970s written by anthropologist and shaman, Carlos Castaneda, called The Teachings of Don Juan.
The Gatepost will keep you reading enjoyably to its end, and hoping for a sequel.
Oh, postscript, living in Vermont as I do, the caricature of the face and nose of the Governor in the book, as described by Tim, seems recognizable to me as former Governor Peter Shumlin (2011-2017). I wonder if I am correct in this observation?
The book arrived via epub so I was able to download it via my Apple books app. I actually like reading some books electronically, but it isn’t my first choice. However, for Tim’s book it made no difference. Although I am a slow reader, the story kept me captivated and wanting to keep turning pages,
I was thinking, more or less, it was going to be along the same plot lines of the Afterlife Project, thinking there was more to say in that novel. I wanted to know more about this world so many thousands of years into the future, but it was not disappointing in The Gatepost of being introduced to Esmeralda “Esme” Weatherhead, the daughter of her missing father, Gregory, a Mesoamerican archeologist, and his wife, Silvana Rodríguez, from Oaxaca.
A couple other seminal characters include Lucas St. Pierre, a geologist, who becomes a love interest with Esme, and Sebastian Bonney, a British oligarch who unfortunately reminded me of Elon Musk. Debbie, as he is known to Esme, was friends with Gregory, but Esme has no love or respect for him
The other major character is Zoraida, a Zapotec curandera.
As in the Afterlife Project, there are multiple shifts in time from June 2004, when Greg disappears, to March 2024 & July 2024, the current present time of the book. The locations change too: Corinth, Vermont; Montpelier; Oaxaca; to mysterious caves and ancient artifacts.
What makes the book so interesting is the mystery surrounding Gregory’s disappearance.
The use of drugs like Psilocybin mushrooms, which Gregory, and later Esme and Lucas use facilitate the piercing of the veil between the physical and the other unknown world. Esme believes her father is still alive or exists in another dimension.
In lesser hands, these concepts might distract you, and if you are of my age, to think of the book that explored magic mushrooms of the 1970s written by anthropologist and shaman, Carlos Castaneda, called The Teachings of Don Juan.
The Gatepost will keep you reading enjoyably to its end, and hoping for a sequel.
Oh, postscript, living in Vermont as I do, the caricature of the face and nose of the Governor in the book, as described by Tim, seems recognizable to me as former Governor Peter Shumlin (2011-2017). I wonder if I am correct in this observation?
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Gatepost is a story of deep meaning embedded in the timeless story of human hope, love and truth. Set in the beautiful state of Vermont in the US, a daughter searches for closure in her scientist father's disappearance. In her search, as a young determined woman, she ventures into other realms of non-ordinary states of consciousness. What she finds is a truth that is more profound than she can imagine.
The author, Tim Weed, a Vermonter himself, paints a picture of the State and it's characters that has substance and honesty. As romantic love grows for daughter Esme with her partenaire, the young geological surveyor, the establishment forces set against her mount. Discovering her father's path to another realm, known to the ancient Mesoamericans, the answer to his disappearance emerges, an answer that points to an alternative reality.
Reminiscent of Terrance McKenna's book, “The Invisible Landscape" and Aldous Huxley's book, “Island”, Tim Weed weaves a wonderful story around a profound truth – our reality is just the surface of a deeper, more meaningful reality, which can give us all insight into saving humanity.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learned a good amount about geology along the way as well as some ancient methods of Shamanism.
The author, Tim Weed, a Vermonter himself, paints a picture of the State and it's characters that has substance and honesty. As romantic love grows for daughter Esme with her partenaire, the young geological surveyor, the establishment forces set against her mount. Discovering her father's path to another realm, known to the ancient Mesoamericans, the answer to his disappearance emerges, an answer that points to an alternative reality.
Reminiscent of Terrance McKenna's book, “The Invisible Landscape" and Aldous Huxley's book, “Island”, Tim Weed weaves a wonderful story around a profound truth – our reality is just the surface of a deeper, more meaningful reality, which can give us all insight into saving humanity.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learned a good amount about geology along the way as well as some ancient methods of Shamanism.
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.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Told from multiple perspectives, The Gatepost is a seamless blend of eco-fiction, suspense, and science fiction about Esmie, a young woman who gives up her career and marriage and moves back to her childhood home, determined to finally solve the mystery that has haunted her for twenty years: how and why did her father simply vanish? With the help of Lucas, a local geologist, she not only discovers the cave where her father conducted the research that ultimately led to his disappearance, but the vast secret the cave keeps. Tim Weed’s novel is multi-layered, delving into themes of time (both geological and human), consciousness, love, life, and death. With an added element of suspense, and even a hint of romance, it’s a page-turning must read.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Tim Weed's The GatePost is a delightful, layered suspense novel.
An American Mesoamerican culture expert is entrusted with safeguarding a valuable art object. He disappeared a while later, leaving it unguarded. Twenty years later, you and the scientist's daughter will investigate, suspect, and discover why and how it happened, as well as the culprit.
Now, I crave returning to Vermont in spring or summer and discovering Oaxaca, Mexico, with its Zapotec ruins and the Museum of Anthropology. Tim Weed's love is evident in his extraordinary descriptions of people, settings, and food.
As a snail reader, I devoured the 245 pages in less than two weeks. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
An American Mesoamerican culture expert is entrusted with safeguarding a valuable art object. He disappeared a while later, leaving it unguarded. Twenty years later, you and the scientist's daughter will investigate, suspect, and discover why and how it happened, as well as the culprit.
Now, I crave returning to Vermont in spring or summer and discovering Oaxaca, Mexico, with its Zapotec ruins and the Museum of Anthropology. Tim Weed's love is evident in his extraordinary descriptions of people, settings, and food.
As a snail reader, I devoured the 245 pages in less than two weeks. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
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 - 9 of 9 reviews