Description
A compelling story of characters enduring various hardships in rural New Mexico.
This debut novel tells the story of nine-year-old Raymond, nicknamed "Ray Moon" by Molly, his adoptive caretaker, a waitress, and the former partner of his recently deceased uncle. These two outcasts rely on one another for survival, and their bond forms the heart of this book. Living in a trailer atop a mesa in the high desert of New Mexico in 1968, Raymond ages quickly amid hostile circumstances. With the help of a keen imagination that Molly inspires, he navigates various forms of loss and exploitation amid enduring hardship.
Kevin Honold's deft and trance-like prose is interspersed with sharp insights and brings attention to the displacement of Native Americans, the hardships of capitalism, the ills of misogyny, and the raw hurt of living a displaced or marginalized life. This is a story of endurance, memory, and unceasing change.
Molly was selected by Dan Chaon as the winner of the 2020 Autumn House Fiction Prize.
About the Author
Kevin Honold was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is currently a history and special education teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of Men as Trees Walking.
Reviews
"There is a particularly satisfying aptness when the beauties of the American Southwest inspire a beautiful book-which Molly is." * Wall Street Journal *
"Honold, a high school teacher in Santa Fe, paints high-desert landscapes with hallucinatory strokes in this elliptical and wise novella." * New Mexico Magazine *
"Molly is a wondrously strange and lyrical rural noir, with an almost phantasmagorical vividness in its New Mexico landscape and a tender and heartfelt sympathy for its marginal characters. Honold is a true original." -- Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will
"Seasoned, somber writing." * Hudson Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9781637680025
Author Kevin Honold
Format Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint Autumn House Press
Publisher Autumn House Press
Weight(grams) 260g
Dimensions(mm) 218mm * 151mm * 13mm
This debut novel tells the story of nine-year-old Raymond, nicknamed "Ray Moon" by Molly, his adoptive caretaker, a waitress, and the former partner of his recently deceased uncle. These two outcasts rely on one another for survival, and their bond forms the heart of this book. Living in a trailer atop a mesa in the high desert of New Mexico in 1968, Raymond ages quickly amid hostile circumstances. With the help of a keen imagination that Molly inspires, he navigates various forms of loss and exploitation amid enduring hardship.
Kevin Honold's deft and trance-like prose is interspersed with sharp insights and brings attention to the displacement of Native Americans, the hardships of capitalism, the ills of misogyny, and the raw hurt of living a displaced or marginalized life. This is a story of endurance, memory, and unceasing change.
Molly was selected by Dan Chaon as the winner of the 2020 Autumn House Fiction Prize.
About the Author
Kevin Honold was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is currently a history and special education teacher in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of Men as Trees Walking.
Reviews
"There is a particularly satisfying aptness when the beauties of the American Southwest inspire a beautiful book-which Molly is." * Wall Street Journal *
"Honold, a high school teacher in Santa Fe, paints high-desert landscapes with hallucinatory strokes in this elliptical and wise novella." * New Mexico Magazine *
"Molly is a wondrously strange and lyrical rural noir, with an almost phantasmagorical vividness in its New Mexico landscape and a tender and heartfelt sympathy for its marginal characters. Honold is a true original." -- Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will
"Seasoned, somber writing." * Hudson Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9781637680025
Author Kevin Honold
Format Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint Autumn House Press
Publisher Autumn House Press
Weight(grams) 260g
Dimensions(mm) 218mm * 151mm * 13mm
