Who Designed It? 'Yesteryear' by Caro Claire Burke
Cover Design by John Gall
When I go to bookstores, I am obsessed with looking at books’ back flap to see who designed the jacket.
If I particularly like it, I look them up. I usually follow them on Instagram. I add them to my little mental Rolodex of designers whom I am jealous of. They become famous to me like the world’s most niche celebrities. Yes, I am very normal.
Now, I subject you share my obsession with you. Lucky you!
Here is a designer I think you should know: John Gall.
The Book
Title: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Cover Designer: John Gall
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: April 7, 2026
Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.
Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
Yesteryear sits next to Theo of Golden and a Fourth Wing sequel on Barnes & Noble’s homepage, so you know it’s popular. Hopefully it’s written better.1
The Designer
The book’s cover was designed by one of the greats working today: John Gall.
John Gall is a designer, artist, author, editor, and professor. He is currently the creative director of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. His design and illustration work for Knopf, Vintage Books, Abrams Books, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Criterion Collection, and Nonesuch Records has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Art Directors Club, Print, Graphis, and American Illustration.
He’s also a great collage artist. Gall is one of my favorite book cover designers and a guy who’s work frequently makes me say “I wish I did that.”
Links
Other Covers
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Voices of the Fallen Heroes by Yukio Misima
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Weather by Jenny Offill
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru
The Red Arrow by William Brewer
Thanks for Reading!
Thank you for reading! I mean it.
If you’d like to keep this newsletter going and help me say no to designing soul-sucking books about corporate events, email marketing, and raising capital, consider becoming a paid subscriber or buying me a coffee.
Until next time,
—Nathaniel
This newsletter uses bookshop.org affiliate links. If you’d like to support this newsletter, buying a book via one of those links is a great way to do so! Some of the covers have changed, though.
I have that edition of Lolita! A little bit of a bummer though as Nabokov was very clear that he didn’t want girls on the cover (something most publishers have clearly ignored over the years lol).
Thanks for sharing; love the collage covers (the collage angle is why I began following you in the first place)
;-)