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Distributed for Autumn House Press

Molly

Distributed for Autumn House Press

Molly

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.
 

184 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2021

Fiction


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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

Table of Contents

I. 4
II. 38
III. 76
IV. 87
V. 101
VII. 142
Author's Notes 173
Thanks 175
About the Author 177

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