Upstate

Upstate by Kim Van Alkemade is out now, published October 27, 2026.

See if this book is on Audible

Upstate

Buy Now on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.

Upstate Release Date: October 27, 2026

Published

From New York Times bestselling author Kim van Alkemade comes a story of love, loss, and healing that speaks to our present moment while richly evoking the past. A grieving writer who sets out to revive an abandoned bookshop in upstate New York discovers forgotten letters that reveal the shop’s secret sapphic history.

Thirty-four-year-old writer Audrey Beacon is grieving alone during lockdown when a post about a bookshop for sale in upstate New York pops into her social media feed like a lifeline. Enthralled by the historic house and the massive barn bursting with books, Audrey impulsively makes an offer. Soon, she’s cashing out her savings, loading her possessions into her dead husband’s van, and fleeing Manhattan for the village of Schuywich, determined to outrun the ghosts of her past.

In 1956, it’s love at first sight when Schuywich librarian Hazel McIntyre meets dashing magazine writer Evelyn Cabot at a summer camp in Maine that discreetly promises a “different vacation for professional women.” By summer’s end, Evelyn has left Greenwich Village to move into an old farmhouse she’s bought in Hazel’s hometown. In her new column, “The Upstate Dispatch,” Evelyn writes about her adventures renovating a house, tending to sheep, and opening a bookshop in her barn with help from the woman readers know only as her “roommate.” Privately, Hazel chronicles their six-decade love story in a series of letters that abruptly end when they’re forced to abandon the bookshop in 2015.

Reopening the bookshop in the summer of 2020 attracts a quirky community of villagers who continuously interrupt Audrey’s An unemployed Broadway set designer. An ambitious teenage entrepreneur. A story-telling Adirondack grandmother. Then there’s Sam Rensselaer, the distractingly handsome representative of the agriculture extension. Past and present begin to converge when Audrey finds “The Upstate Dispatch” in a stack of old magazines, but it’s the discovery of Hazel’s letters that brings hidden love and long-buried family secrets to light. Will Audrey find the courage to heal the wounds of the past—including her own?

Buy Now on Amazon

📚 Ready to read? Secure your copy today and be among the first to enjoy this release.

Reader Anticipation Rating:
[Average Rating: 0]

Genre: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction

Kim Van Alkemade

More books from Kim Van Alkemade

🎧 While You Wait for Upstate

Prefer audiobooks?

Check Audible to see if Upstate is available to listen to.

Start a free trial and get your first audiobook free.

✔ Listen while commuting or relaxing
✔ Your first audiobook is free with the trial
✔ Cancel anytime

Start Audible Free Trial

Recommended Book Release Guides

Similar Books Liked By Our Readers

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *