First published 2026
Isaac Fitzgerald sets out from Leominster, Massachusetts to retrace the life journey of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. The New York Times bestselling author walks the same paths Chapman took from birth to death, ending in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Fitzgerald grew up near his mother's family farm, close to where the legendary wanderer once lived. His father filled his childhood with stories about Chapman that sparked dreams of adventure around every corner. Over the course of a year, Fitzgerald follows the historical Chapman's footsteps while wrestling with his own struggles with alcohol and his family's history of mental illness. Dogs attack him, a train nearly strikes him, and strangers offer shelter along the way. He discovers that Chapman belonged to an obscure Christian sect and that his bitter apples served mainly to make alcoholic drinks, not the sweet fruit of legend. The journey becomes a reckoning with American myths, personal demons, and the search for what truly matters in life.
Genres: adventure, biography-memoir, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, personal-journey
Setting: Leominster, Massachusetts, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Period: 19th-century
352 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: addiction, mental-illness