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tin
house
Fall 2020
catalog
TINHOUSE.COM
CATALOG ISBN: 978-1-951142-02-5
Contents Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was A Girl .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A Girl is a Body of Water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Bright and Dangerous Objects .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Negotiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Butchers’ Blessing .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 Agaat .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 Divide Me By Zero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 Select Paperbacks.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 Tin House Poetry.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 Contact and Distribution Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1
CO MI N G I N PA P ER B AC K
Praised by Laurie Halse Anderson as
“critically important. . . . a reckoning
- - - CO MI NG I N PA P E RB ACK - - -
Things We Didn’t with injustice,” Jeannie Vanasco’s THE CRI TI CA L LY ACCL A I ME D N EW YOR K TIMES E D I TORS’
Talk About When I bold and timely confrontation of the
Was a Girl man who raped her will transform CHOI CE AND B E ST B OOK OF THE YE A R I N TIME, ESQ U IRE,
the way we as a society think and talk
a me mo ir by JEANNI E VANASCO about sexual assault. KIR KU S, EL ECTR IC L ITER ATU R E, A ND BOOK R IOT
J eannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare
since she was a teenager. It is always about him:
one of her closest high school friends, a boy named
“Bold, unsettling, timely. . . . critically important. . . . [Vanasco] has created a
reckoning with injustice told in real time.” ––TIME
Mark. A boy who raped her. When her nightmares “It’s hard to overstate the importance of this gorgeous, harrowing,
worsen, Jeannie decides—after fourteen years of
silence—to reach out to Mark. He agrees to talk
heartbreaking book.” ––BU STLE
on the record and meet in person. “It’s about violence and forgiveness, about friendship and the unwanted title of
Jeannie details her friendship with Mark
victim, about digging deeper and deeper to seek answers—from yourself and
before and after the assault, asking the brave and
urgent question: Is it possible for a good person from your bogeyman.” ––NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REV IEW
to commit a terrible act? Jeannie interviews Mark,
“Perhaps the most important book of the season.” ––ESQ U IRE
exploring how rape has impacted his life as well as
her own. “Part of what the book is about, in a more subtle way, is how important it is
Unflinching and courageous, Things We Didn’t to speak about these oft-silenced experiences that cause so many to feel
Talk About When I Was a Girl is part memoir, part true
crime record, and part testament to the strength
ashamed, scared, and alone.” ––NPR
of female friendships—a recounting and reckoning “Jeannie Vanasco muddles through the silt of her thoughts to create a
that will inspire us to ask harder questions, push
language for something we don’t talk about.” ––PA RIS REV IEW
towards deeper understanding, and continue a
necessary and long overdue conversation. “It’s a remarkably nuanced account of the complicated and confusing emotions
US $16.95 · Trade Paperback · CAN $22.95 · NONFICTION that surface when your rapist is someone you knew and trusted.”
ISBN 978-1-951142-03-2 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 366 pages
ON SALE AUGUST 11, 2020
N AT IO N A L M A RKE T I N G ––NEW YORK 'S TH E CU T
C A M PAIG N “Utterly brilliant. . . . some of the most thought-provoking and intense reading
J E A N N I E VA N A S CO is ∙ Ongoing national author appearances, including top I’ve done in a long time.” ––BOOK RIOT
the author of the memoirs literary festivals, conferences, and library events
Things We Didn’t Talk About “A cuttingly funny meta-meditation on her own pain in the context of #MeToo.”
∙ Extensive book club promotion, including Goodreads
When I Was a Girl and The ––O, TH E OPRA H MAGA Z INE
Glass Eye. Her writing has ∙ Comprehensive social media promotion
appeared in the Believer, ∙ Includes bound-in discussion guide and resource “An extraordinarily brave work of self- and cultural reflection.” ––K IRKU S
the New York Times Modern guide
Love, NewYorker.com, the REV IEW S, starred review
Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere. She lives ∙ Academic outreach for course adoption and First Year
in Baltimore and is an assistant professor of English at Experience programs “Sets the canon of #MeToo-era creative nonfiction on fire. . . . Inimitable.”
Towson University. ––BOOK LIST
jeannievanasco.com
FICTION 4
International-award-winning author
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel
A Girl is a Body
PRAIS E FO R M ORE M I RA C LE T HA N BIRD is a sweeping and powerful portrait of a
of Water
An excerpt from A Girl is a Body of Water young girl and her family: who they are,
what history has taken from them, and— a novel by
Grandmother nudged Kirabo to sit up and leaned forward to stoke the fire. When she sat most importantly—how they find their
J EN N I FER N A N S U B U G A M A KU M B I
back down, Kirabo did not lean against her again. She turned and looked at her. She stared way back to each other.
for so long Grandmother asked, “Have I grown horns?”
Kirabo wondered whether to tell Grandmother that age spots had appeared under her
eyes. God must have sprinkled them while Grandmother slept, because they had not been I n her twelfth year, Kirabo, a young Ugandan
girl, encounters a confusing force inside her:
a mysterious second self that enables her to fly
there the other day. On her chin were two hairs, thick and curled. Kirabo reached to touch
outside of her body. Night after night, she soars
them. Grandmother looked up sharply. Kirabo’s hand fell. “There’s a hair on your chin.”
over the home she knows so well, looking down
“It means I’m going to be rich someday.”
from the sky at her small, sleeping village and the
“Giibwa said a hair’s coming on my chin too.” Kirabo rubbed her chin.
grandparents who raised her. But who, exactly, is
Grandmother lips twitched. “Let’s see.” She tilted Kirabo’s chin. “You’re going to be
this second self? And why is she flying? Seeking
very rich: my wealth and yours combined.” answers, Kirabo begins spending afternoons with
“Why do you smile small, Jjajja?” Nsuuta, a local witch, trading stories and learning
Grandmother picked up another straw, tore it with her teeth and sighed. “You’re not only about this force inside her, but about
growing up, not down.” the woman who birthed her: a mother Kirabo
“Hmm?” desperately wants to know, but has never met.
“Now don’t go hurrying to grow up to find out.” Nsuuta explains that Kirabo has a streak
Kirabo laughed. of the “first woman” in her nature—the
“Mosquitoes have started. Go and check in the water barrels. If there’s water, take a bath independent, original state that has been all but
and stay in the house with your grandfather.” lost to women. Kirabo’s journey to reconcile
Kirabo jumped up. Darkness was complete. She ran to the barrels but did not check her rebellious origins, alongside her desire to
reconnect with her mother and to honor her
them. She ran around the kitchen to the back path that went to Batte’s house. There was
family’s expectations, is a rich and arresting
no chance of meeting anyone that way. Batte, the village drunk, lived alone. He had already
exploration of what it means to be a woman in the US $27.95 · Hardcover · CAN $36.95 · FICTION
gone to Modani Baara, the local bar, to drink. She reached the rear of Batte’s kitchen and ISBN 978-1-951142-04-9 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 560 pages
modern world. Makumbi’s unforgettable novel is
crossed his front yard. The house was in total darkness. When she got to the main road, she ON SALE SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
a testament to the true and lasting connections
heard the teenagers returning from the well. She stepped behind a shrub. Nothing to worry between history, tradition, family, friends, and the
about; there would be an hour of taking baths before they noticed her absence. promise of a different future. P RO M OT I ON & P U B LI CI T Y
When the teenagers turned into the walkway, Kirabo jumped from behind the shrub and
sprinted down the road, past the Coffee Growers’ Co-operative Store, known as koparativu JENNIFER NANSU BU GA ∙ 5-city national author tour
MAKU MBI is a recipient of ∙ Major prepublication buzz campaign: featured author
stowa by everyone in the village. It was so dark that bushes, shrubs, coffee shambas and the Windham-Campbell Prize at BEA, industry advertising, Goodreads giveaways, and
matooke plantations were one solid mass of blackness, a shield rather than a threat. Kirabo and her first novel, Kintu, won galley mailing to industry big-mouths and social media
couldn’t even see her hands. the Kwani? Manuscript Project influencers
in 2013 and was longlisted
for the Etisalat Prize in 2014. ∙ National media campaign, including radio and online
Her story “Let’s Tell This Story interviews
Properly” won the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. ∙ National print campaign, including reviews and features
Jennifer lives in Manchester, UK with her husband and son.
∙ Comprehensive library marketing, including positioning
jennifermakumbi.net for Library Reads
∙ Extensive promotion on top book club sites
5 POETRY
“Resistencia could not be more timely.
It is a stunning collection of revelations
Resistencia: and witness. . . . Indispensable.”
EXCERPT FROM
THE INTRODUCTION BY
Poems of Protest and ——LU I S A L B E RTO U R R E A
Revolution JULIA ALVAREZ
int ro duct io n by JULI A ALVAREZ “There is a vibrancy in these lines. There
is joy. There is living. Beauty is put
e d i t ed by MARK EI SNER & TI NA ESCAJA “There is a strong and vibrant tradition L A PAL A BR A R EBELDE
forward bravely.”
in the Americas of a poetry of witness.
——DAV I D TO M A S M A RT I N E Z by Raquel Verdesoto de Romo Dávila
This should come as no surprise in a
hemisphere carved out of violence, Hay que odiar esa paz
wrested from the Indigenous, built
W ith a powerful and poignant donde los hombres sembraron el invierno
introduction from Julia Alvarez, on the backs of the enslaved, the
la hermosura del trébol
Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution is an conquered, the murdered, the
que se abre solamente en los campos cercados.
extraordinary collection, rooted in a strong raped. Often all that was left to
tradition of protest poetry and voiced by icons of the powerless was the power of Si galopan las nubes
the movement and by some of the most exciting
voices today. The poets of Resistencia explore
testimony; the only rebellion possible que se acerquen a todos a dar agua
feminist, queer, indigenous, urban, and ecological was that of the rebel word, to quote si hay pan, en pedazos
themes alongside historically prominent protests the title of Raquel Verdesoto’s poem si un libro nos adorna las manos
against imperialism, dictatorships, and economic included in this anthology. Even when
inequality. Within this momentous collection, que lean altavoces.
nothing remained but walls erected
poets representing every Latin American country
grapple with identity, place, and belonging,
to prohibit passage, to imprison and
resisting easy definitions to render a nuanced entomb, to serve as backdrops for T HE R EBEL WOR D
and complex portrait of language in rebellion. firing squads, those walls became the
translated by Juan Felipe Herrera
Included in English translation alongside printing presses of the poor. Scrawled
US $18.95 · Trade Paper Original · CAN $24.95 · POETRY their original language, the fifty poems in
ISBN 978-1-951142-07-0 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 250 pages on them were messages voicing We must hate that kind of peace
ON SALE SEPTEMBER 15, 2020
Resistencia are a testament to the art of translation
as much as the act of resistance. An all-star resistance and giving hope. To this Where men sowed winter
team of translators, including former U.S. Poet day the tradition persists. On one wall
The shimmering of a four-leaf clover
PRO MOT I ON & P U B LI C I T Y Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera along with young, recently photographed at the border
emerging talent, have made many of the poems between Mexico and the United States, That only unfolds inside fenced lands
∙ Promotion for National Hispanic Heritage Month with
available for the first time to an English-speaking
extensive online and social media outreach a message reads: They tried to bury If clouds gallop by
audience. Urgent, timely, and absolutely essential,
∙ National media campaign, including reviews and first us. They did not know we were seeds. Let them give us water as they come near
these poems inspire us all to embrace our most
serial opportunities
fearless selves and unite against all forms of This anthology is evidence of the If there is bread, in pieces
∙ Extensive social media campaign
tyranny and oppression. flowering of those seeds.”
∙ National advertising campaign If a book adorns our hands
∙ Academic outreach Let reading voices roar.
∙ Extensive library outreach
FICTION 8
An adventurous, intimate, and magnetic
debut novel, capturing one woman’s
“I was instantly fascinated by Bright and Dangerous Objects, which uses the backdrops
ambition to travel to Mars.
Bright and
of undersea welding and a hypothetical expedition to Mars to deftly explore ideas of
independence, grief, motherhood, and romantic relationships and how they shape one
Dangerous Objects
a n o v e l b y A N N EL I ES E M AC K I N TO S H
T
woman’s life. . . . This is an original, inventive, and incredibly enjoyable book. I loved it.” hirty-seven-year-old Solvig has a secret.
She wants to be one of the first human
—LYDIA KIESLING , author of The Golden State beings to colonize Mars and she’s one of a
hundred people shortlisted by the Mars Project
to do just that. But to fulfill her ambition, she’ll
have to leave everything she’s ever known for the
rest of her life.
As the prospect of heading to Mars becomes
An excerpt from BRIGHT AND DANGEROUS OBJECTS more and more real, Solvig is forced to define
who she really is. Will she come clean to James,
How are you ever supposed to know what you want? her partner, or continue her application covertly?
I remember being in the garage with my dad when I was a kid, about ten. My aunt Or will she turn her back on the project, and
Marie popped in and said, “I’m off to the shops, ducky. Want to come?” commit to the life she’s built for herself? And
Dad was in the middle of welding a table, and I was meant to be helping out. Help- when she discovers she’s pregnant, she finds a
ing out involved handing tools to Dad when he needed them, and it was a sacred job. My sharp new clarity, but has it come too late? Is
father was a craftsman and an artist. He welded everything from giant yard installations there any way she can start a family and go to
to miniature model cars. I loved to watch him work. Mars? Does she even want both things?
But I also loved going to the shops. Intimate and transporting, Bright and
“Are you going to the Entertainer?” I asked. I was on the lookout for a new onion- Dangerous Objects explores the space between
ambition and obligation, grappling with
skin or peewee to add to my marble collection.
questions women have faced for centuries while
Aunt Marie smiled. “I think we can manage that.” My dad’s older sister lived with US $15.95 · Trade Paper Original · CAN $21.95 · FICTION
investigating a future that humanity is only
us for a few years after Mum died. I was grateful to have her around, but then she died ISBN 978-1-951142-10-0 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 240 pages
beginning to think about. In frank, honest, and ON SALE OCTOBER 6, 2020
too. An infected hip replacement.
moving prose, author Anneliese Mackintosh
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll come with you.” I skipped down the street until I reached next
moves from sea to sky, head to heart, and present
door’s hydrangea bush; then I froze. “Gah! I’m going back.” P RO M OT I ON & P U B LI CI T Y
to future, asking all the while what it means
I ran back inside and handed Dad a length of steel tubing. And then I thought
when our wildest dreams begin to come true.
about all the marbles I might never own, and I ran outside again. Aunt Marie was at the ∙ National media campaign, including radio and online
lamppost on the corner. interviews
“Hurry up then, child,” she called, shaking her head. ∙ National print media campaign, including reviews,
ANNELIESE features, and original essays
“No!” I shouted, realising it was my dad I wanted to be with after all. I ran back to MACKINTO SH ’s short
the garage, and instantly regretted it. I rushed out, panting, but Aunt Marie was too far stories have won the Green ∙ Massive galley promotion into retail and library markets
away to catch up. Carnation Prize and been ∙ Book club partnerships and promotions on top book
shortlisted for the Edge Hill club sites, including Goodreads
I cried too much to see the table being finished.
Prize, and longlisted for the
Now, I’ve learnt the secret to making decisions. It’s all about diving in. Am I hun- ∙ Bound-in reading group guide
Frank O’Connor International
gry? I’ll eat a sandwich to find out. Am I tired yet? I’ll go to bed and see. Do I want a Short Story Award. Her short
baby? I don’t know. Let’s have unprotected sex and see. fiction has been broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio
Scotland.
anneliesemackintosh.com
9 POETRY
Urgent, unflinching, and utterly singular, The 400-Meter Heat
Destiny O. Birdsong’s debut negotiates PRA ISE FOR
Negotiations
p o e ms by DESTI NY O. BI RDSONG
identities shaped by seemingly
contradictory spaces: the academy and NEGOTIATIONS I’m most American when I reach for more ketchup
as Shaunae Miller dives across the finish.
the hood, the bedroom and the sanctuary, I’m blackest when Allyson Felix collapses on the track,
the hospital room and the beauty salon. knees up, concealing her last name
“Reading Negotiations is like walking into
a boxing match with an indefatigable and the letters USA blistering her chest.
W hat makes a self? In her remarkable
debut collection of poems, Destiny O.
Birdsong writes fearlessly towards this question.
fighter; you will be struck, and it will hurt.
But for all of its ferocity in how it grapples
I’m saddest whenever two black women are competing
because I never know who to root for,
Laced with ratchetry, yet hungering for its own
with womanhood, sexuality, assault, and and I’m arrogant enough to believe my split loyalty
respectability, Negotiations is about what it means race, this collection is also full of wonder.
to live in this America, about Cardi B and top- Of forgiveness. Of tenderness, the like fails them (which makes me more American again).
tier journal publications, about autoimmune of which, ultimately, delivers the most This is how it feels to be a problem:
disease and the speaker’s intense hunger for powerful sucker punch.”
hoping that, when a country’s cameras are trained
her own body—a surprise of self-love in the
—EL I Z A B ETH AC EV ED O, on your back, and you offer the fruited plain
aftermath of both assault and diagnosis. It’s
a series of love letters to black women, who National Book Award Winner
of your body, it’s somehow enough to quench
are often singled out for abuse and assault, the parched land where all the mothers keep dying,
silencing and tokenism, fetishization and cultural “The terms of Destiny O. Birdsong’s
appropriation in ways that throw the rock, then Negotiations are scalding and tender. each ghost a breath-song trilling in your blood,
hide the hand. It is a book about tenderness and Birdsong excavates a national history and and, perhaps, one day, grand mal convulsions—
an indictment of people and systems that attempt her speaker’s personal histories, tracks how
to narrow black women’s lives, their power. But petechiae like pomegranate seeds jeweling your face.
their intersections and aftermaths wreak
it is also an examination of complicity—both a Every race is a transubstantiation of flesh,
havoc in the woman who survives. But
US $16.95 · Trade Paper Original · CAN $22.95 · POETRY narrative and a black box warning for a particular
ISBN 978-1-951142-13-1 · 6" x 9" · 140 pages kind of self-healing that requires recognizing
Birdsong’s Negotiations endgame is not just not to gold, or bronze, or mythical filigree,
ON SALE OCTOBER 13, 2020 culpability when and where it exists.
simply survival—it aims to flourish.” but to the fleeting, nameless moment when a foot
—D ONI KA K EL LY , author of Bestiary finds the chalk line drawn by someone else.
PRO M OT I ON & P U B LI C I T Y Maybe #magic, or a single, unfortunate tremor
∙ National media campaign, including TV, radio, and
D E STI NY O. B I RD SONG that means nothing until you’re dead. Who knows what metals
online interviews
is a Louisiana-born poet, fiction the gods use to forge victory, which is neither sympathy
∙ National print campaign, including reviews, features, writer, and essayist. She has
and original essays received fellowships from Cave nor love, nor more sacred than the foot-fall—
∙ Author events in select cities Canem, The Ragdale Founda- its indiscernible blip magnified for millions
tion, and The MacDowell
∙ Inclusion in Tin House Linebreakers promotion Colony, and won the Academy
of eyes that only blink when we’re winning—
∙ Digital ad campaign targeting top literary and poetry of American Poets Prize. She
sites, including outlets where the author’s work has earned both her MFA and PhD from Vanderbilt University, and which you too probably missed, although later,
previously appeared now lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.
in the dashcam footage, you’ll swear to me you saw it.
∙ Comprehensive social media campaign, including the destinybirdsong.com
author’s online platforms
FICTION 12
A murder on the Irish border; an ancient
folk tradition dying out. The Butchers’
P R AI S E FOR Blessing is a novel about families and The Butchers’
farmers; about mythic rituals and mad Blessing
The Butchers’ Blessing cows; about the stories we leave behind
a n o v e l b y RU T H G I L L I G A N
and the ones we cling to, no matter the cost.
“Gilligan braids beauty and brutality
together in a seamless literary thriller.
With plot twists worthy of Tana French E very year, Úna prepares for her father to
leave her. He will wave goodbye early one
morning, then disappear with seven other men
and language reminiscent of Téa
to traverse the Irish countryside. Together, these
Obreht, this young Irish writer has men form The Butchers, a group that roams from
crafted a story that is dark, wild, farm to farm, enacting ancient methods of cattle
mythic, unsuspecting, and slaughter.
absolutely riveting.” The Butchers’ Blessing moves between the events
of 1996 and the present, offering a simmering
— CO LUM M C CA N N , glimpse into the modern tensions that surround
author of Let the Great World Spin these eight fabled men. For Úna, being a Butcher’s
daughter means a life of tangled ambition and
incredible loneliness. For her mother Grá, it’s a
“Flawlessly, intricately plotted, but with such a
life of faith and longing, of performing a promise
compelling central mystery that I binged it like a
that she may or may not be able to keep. For non-
Netflix show. . . . It’s stunning.” believer Fionn, The Butchers represent a dated and
complicated reality, though for his son Davey, they
— LU K E KE N N ARD , author of The Transition represent an entirely new world—and potentially
new love. For photographer Ronan, The Butchers
US $25.95 · Hardcover · CAN $34.95 · FICTION
“A remarkable novel. Gilligan paints a disturbing are ideal subjects: representatives of an older, ISBN 978-1-947793-78-1 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 312 pages
portrait of rural Ireland which is both modern and more folkloric Ireland whose survival is now being ON SALE NOVEMBER 10, 2020
ancient, firmly grounded in the realistic and hauntingly tested. As he moves through the countryside,
otherworldly.” Ronan captures this world image by image—a
P RO M OT I ON & P U B LI CI T Y
lake, a cottage, and his most striking photo: a
single butcher, hung upside-down in a pose of ∙ Prepublication buzz campaign, including galley
— JA N CARSON , author of The Fire Starters promotion into the retail and library markets, trade
unspeakable violence.
advertising, and early reader review programs
“I was hooked from the first page. It was an exhilarating, ∙ National media campaign, including TV, radio, and
unsettling reading experience: I felt at once like an R U T H GILLIGAN is a online interviews
graduate of Cambridge and
outsider and completely at home as I read and was at Yale, and now works as a ∙ National print campaign, including reviews, features,
all times completely immersed and wowed at Ruth’s Lecturer in Creative Writing at and original essays
storytelling prowess.” the University of Birmingham. ∙ National print and advertising campaign
She contributes regular literary
∙ Comprehensive social media campaign
reviews to the Guardian, LA
—D O NAL R YA N , author of From a Low and Quiet Sea Review of Books, Irish Inde- ∙ Select author appearances
pendent, and Times Literary Supplement.
ruthgilligan.com
13 FICTION
“I was immediately mesmerized . . . “The most important South African novel since Coetzee’s Disgrace.”
as brilliant as it is haunting.”
Agaat —The Times Literary Supplement
a n o v el by MARLENE VAN NI EKERK —TONI MORRISON
i nt ro duct io n by MARY GAI TSKI LL “Books like Agaat...are the reason people read
I t’ll be the end of me yet, getting communication going.
That’s how it’s been from the beginning with her.
And so begins the story of the complicated
novels, and the reason authors write them.”
—New York Times Book Review
history between Milla, a sixty-seven-year-old
white woman condemned to silence by ALS, and “This is a frank novel about a white South
her maidservant-turned-caretaker, Agaat, in the African landowner and her lifelong servant
waning days of South African apartheid. in a radically changing country.”
Life for white farmers in 1950s South Africa —#1 in the “Ten Books to Pick Up” in
was full of promise. Young and newly married,
O, The Oprah Magazine
Milla carved her own farm out of a swathe of
Cape mountainside. She earned the respect of the “A dark, innovative epic.”
male farmers in the community and raised a son.
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
But forty years later all she has left are memories
and the proud, contrary Agaat. With sadistic “Both absorbing in its minutiae and provocative in
precision yet infinite tenderness, Agaat performs its allegorical approach to apartheid, Agaat explodes
her duties, balancing anger with loyalty. As Milla’s
the domestic sphere to encompass the world.”
white world and its certainties recede and Agaat
faces the prospect of freedom, the shift of power —Portland Mercury
between them mirrors the historic changes
“This novel stuns.”
happening around them. Marlene van Niekerk’s
epic masterpiece portrays how two women— —Booklist, Starred Review
US $18.95 · Trade Paperback· CAN $24.95 · FICTION and, perhaps, a nation—can forge a path toward
“A stylishly inventive book.”
ISBN 978-1-951142-20-9 · 5 ½" x 8 ½" · 592 pages understanding and reconciliation.
ON SALE DECEMBER 1, 2020 —The Rumpus
“Fascinating and moving.”
PROMOT I ON & P U B L I C I T Y
—KATE SAUNDERS , The Times
∙ Specially packaged ten-year anniversary edition MA RL E NE VA N NI E K E RK
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