Wait for Me

Wait for Me (2026) is a historical fiction novel by Amy Jo Burns about women in the country music industry. Burns is known for her works set in Appalachia and the Rust Belt, including the memoir Cinderland and the novels Shiner and Mercury. A TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club pick, Wait for Me moves between 1991 and the 1960s and 1970s. The story begins in 1991 when a meteor strike in a small Pennsylvania town reveals a possible clue to the mysterious 1973 disappearance of country-folk singer Elle Harlow. News coverage of the meteor strike brings national attention to 18-year-old Marijohn Shaw’s best friend and musical partner, Lazarus Wright, who receives a recording contract offer. The publicity also draws Elle out of hiding, leading Marijohn to question what she knows about her parentage and Elle’s disappearance.

Burns draws on the history of women in folk and country music, as well as a real-life meteor strike in western Pennsylvania, to tell a story about musical ownership, family relationships, and loss. Commercialization as Artistic Erosion examines how record producers and performers profit from women’s songs while limiting their control over their work. Disappearance as Reclaimed Agency addresses Elle’s decision to leave the music industry and live in seclusion after her relationships and career deteriorate. Music as a Vessel for Grief examines how music helps Elle cope with the deaths of her brother and mentor, Merry, and how she later shares that music with Marijohn.

This guide refers to the 2026 Celadon Books first edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide contain depictions of illness, death, child death, suicidal ideation, self-harm, substance use, child abuse, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In Lenora, Pennsylvania, in 1991, 18-year-old Marijohn Shaw lives with her father, Abe, at their gas station, which doubles as a museum dedicated to the disappeared country-folk singer Elle Harlow. Abe claims he was the last person to see Elle alive in 1973 and that she is Marijohn’s biological mother, having abandoned her as an infant at the station pump. Marijohn secretly doubts the story, especially the authenticity of the signature attributed to Elle on the pump and the Elle Harlow “relics” her father collects. Her primary focus is the imminent departure of her best friend and musical partner, Lazarus Wright, who is leaving for college the next day. Marijohn plans to confess her long-held love for him before he goes. For their last night together, they drive to their secluded spot in the woods to play music. Marijohn kisses Lazarus, but he pulls away. As she plays the mandolin, Lazarus sings “Namesake,” a song Marijohn wrote, while their Sony Handycam records them. During the performance, a meteor streaks across the sky and crashes into a nearby ravine. In the chaos, Lazarus shields Marijohn with his body, and the camera records his actions before the feed cuts out.

The meteor strike draws attention to Marijohn and Lazarus. Investigating the ravine, Marijohn discovers a piece of pink-and-white gingham plastic—a fragment from Elle Harlow’s custom-made guitar—churned up by the impact, suggesting Elle’s car may have crashed there 18 years ago. Meanwhile, Lazarus gives their video to a local news station. The footage of him protecting Marijohn receives widespread television coverage. He is invited onto national television, where he performs “Namesake” solo, leading to a record deal offer from Weston Studios in Nashville. Though hurt by his use of her song, Marijohn encourages him to seize the opportunity. Shortly after Lazarus leaves, Elle Harlow appears on Marijohn’s porch. Now 40 years old, Elle has seen the news footage featuring the distinctive broken-faced mandolin Marijohn was playing. She has come to reclaim the instrument, which she recognizes as the one she left in a wicker trunk with an infant at Abe’s gas station 18 years earlier.

The narrative shifts to Elle’s past, beginning in West Virginia in 1964. As a girl, Elle meets Merry, a mute mountain healer who communicates through her music on a rosewood mandolin. After Elle’s younger brother, Reuben, dies of pneumonia, Merry becomes a mentor to Elle, who begins to hear songs in her head. For five years, Elle apprentices with Merry, learning about healing and music. Their relationship ends when Elle disobeys Merry and follows her to a secret cabin, where she discovers that Merry is caring for her seriously ill sister, a reclusive cigar maker who has also suffered injuries from an apparent fall. During a storm, Elle slips on mossy rocks, and Merry saves her from falling. Shortly afterward, Merry slips on the same rocks and strikes her head against her truck’s hitch, dying from the injury. The following morning, Elle pushes the truck, with Merry’s body inside, into a deep river, after retrieving Merry’s damaged mandolin. Encouraged by her mother, Susannah, Elle moves to Nashville, where she befriends Josie, an ambitious studio secretary. They become musical partners, with the classically trained Josie helping Elle develop her songs about Merry. Their friendship deteriorates after Elle uses her knowledge of healing to help Josie’s twin sister, Jaclyn, following a suicide attempt, and Josie reacts negatively to Elle’s methods.

Months later, Elle is horrified to hear her songs on the radio, performed by Josie and released as a hit album titled Soldier, with all songwriting credited to Josie. The album is framed as a tribute to Josie’s supposed soldier boyfriend away at war. Arlo Weston, the head of the studio, offers Elle a record deal to buy her silence. She accepts and records the commercially successful pop-country album School Girl Crush. Dissatisfied with her career, she retreats to a remote cabin in Lenora, Pennsylvania, to write a new album. There, she meets a reclusive luthier who introduces himself as Weston, and they fall in love. Their relationship influences the songs she writes for Wounds from a Lover. After their summer romance, Weston vanishes without a word, taking Merry’s broken mandolin, which he had promised to repair. In December 1973, Elle performs at the Grand Ole Opry during a concert celebrating Josie’s album and the supposed return of her soldier boyfriend. Backstage, Elle confronts Weston, who has reappeared, demanding that he return Merry’s mandolin. Onstage, she sees him sitting in the front row with Josie in a military uniform and realizes he is Luke Weston, Arlo’s cousin, who has been posing as Josie’s soldier boyfriend. After singing her own version of “Heal Nothing,” Elle is approached onstage by Josie, who asks for her help and kisses her cheek. Elle responds by punching Josie in the nose before fleeing the venue.

While driving away from Nashville, Elle stops at Abe Shaw’s gas station, where she discovers an infant—Marijohn—in a wicker trunk that has been placed in her car without her knowledge. Panicked and afraid of harming the child, she leaves the baby and Merry’s mandolin at the gas station before crashing her Studebaker into the Lenora ravine. She survives and disappears, returning to her mother’s home on the mountain, where she lives in seclusion for 18 years. The narrative returns to 1991, where Elle and Marijohn bond over their shared love of music. Elle confronts a frail, reclusive Josie, who confirms that she is Marijohn’s biological mother and explains that she gave up her daughter after the death of her twin sister, Jaclyn. She confirms that Arlo was the one who placed the baby in Elle’s car. Josie offers Elle a letter signing over the rights to the stolen songs. However, Arlo reveals the letter is legally ineffective because Weston Studios owns the rights to the songs and Elle’s next album. He tells Elle she is free to pursue her career independently but that he will continue profiting from her music. Meanwhile, Lazarus returns from Nashville, where he has been recording with Weston Studios, and reunites with Marijohn. The two subsequently travel to Nashville together.

Elle and Marijohn plan an unauthorized comeback concert on the lawn of Arlo’s estate, set for the 18th anniversary of Elle’s disappearance. Marijohn enlists the help of Weston, who lives in a cabin on Arlo’s property and remains in love with Elle. At the concert, Elle and Marijohn perform songs from Merry, allowing Elle to reclaim her music through her own performance. Elle also invites Marijohn to perform one of her own songs. After the performance, Elle and Weston reconcile, discussing the circumstances of his departure and the mandolin he took to repair. Elle disappears again, and her truck is later found abandoned by a river. Three months after the concert, a live recording of Elle’s performance, released as Merry, is successful, and Marijohn receives offers from music producers. Lazarus returns from college after ending his contract with Weston Studios. He shows Marijohn the third fragment of the meteor, which she decides to leave buried. Marijohn decides to move to Nashville to record with an independent label run by women. She realizes that the “third outlaw” in Elle’s song represents the love between an older and a younger woman, first between Merry and Elle and then between Elle and herself. Before leaving, she visits Weston’s now-empty cabin and finds a note from Elle promising, “I’m coming back” (318).