The Mare Lib/E

From the author of Veronica, a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction, comes Mary Gaitskill's most poignant and powerful work yet: the story of a Dominican girl, the white woman who introduces her to riding, and the horse who changes everything for her. Velveteen Vargas is an eleven-year-old from Brooklyn who is granted a summer vacation in the country, courtesy of the nonprofit Fresh Air Fund. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist on the fringe of Alcoholics Anonymous, and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to "make a difference" in such a contrived situation. Here we see the couple's changing relationship with Velvet over the course of several years, as well as Velvet's powerful encounter with the horses at the stable down the road, as Gaitskill weaves together Velvet's vital inner-city community and the privileged country world of Ginger and Paul. The timeless story of a girl and a horse is joined with the story of people from different races and socioeconomic backgrounds trying to meet one another honestly. It is a novel that is raw, striking, and completely original.

About the Author :
Mary Gaitskill is an award-winning author. Because They Wanted To was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998. Her novel Veronica was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and named one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2005. Her stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998). Her story "Secretary" was the basis for the film of the same name. She is a recipient of the 2018 Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature. Kyla García is an actress and audiobook narrator who has earned seven AudioFile Earphones Awards for her work. Her favorite storytelling moments include being a company member of Native Voices at the Autry, starring in the World Premiere of Sovereignty at Arena Stage, and creating the critically acclaimed one-woman show The Mermaid Who Learned How to Fly. She is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Christa Lewis is a classically trained actress who graduated from Boston University. She got her start in voice acting at the international television station DW-TV, and she has been a regular on hundreds of cartoons, museum guides, documentaries, and commercials. Now a full-time audiobook narrator with over sixty titles to her credit, she has been featured in AudioFile Magazine, has earned multiple Earphones Awards, and is an Audible bestselling narrator. She lives in Los Angeles. Lloyd James has been narrating since 1996, has recorded over five hundred books in almost every genre, has earned six AudioFile Earphones Awards, and is a two-time nominee for the prestigious Audie Award. Lloyd's background as a performer includes extensive work in classical theater and folk music. He lives in Maryland with his wife and children. Nicol Zanzarella is an Audie, Earphones, and Voice Arts award-winning narrator of almost 300 audiobooks (some credited to her alter-ego, who has fun with steamier titles). She is a proud member of SAG/AFTRA and PANA.

Review :
"A raw, beautiful story about love and mutual delusion, in which the fierce erotics of mother love and romantic love and even horse fever are swirled together." -- "NPR" "The Mare ripples with internal emotional movement, but it is also a physical novel...An exciting read." -- "New York Review of Books" "A novel whose short chapters, told from shifting points of view, make it ideal for reading aloud." -- "New York Times" "A rich back-and-forth narrative that encompasses falling in love, growing up, and doing right in worlds of privilege and poverty." -- "Bust" "Bracing in its rigorous truth seeking, subtle and capacious in its moral vision, Gaitskill's work feels more real than real life." -- "Boston Globe" "Four excellent narrators tell Velvet's story through various points of view in alternating chapters. Each narrator perfectly defines the complexities of the character being portrayed, while showing different sides of Velvet...When Velvet's abusive but loving mother makes a rare appearance, it's memorable. At times, listeners will be wondering which character is telling the truth--and hoping that Velvet will make the right decisions in the end. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award." -- "AudioFile" "In soaring language that well captures being 'in the zone, ' whether it's painting or riding, Gaitskill brings home her theme of the importance of honoring one's gifts and the hard work of finding the best outlet for creative expression." -- "Booklist" "National Book Award finalist Gaitskill takes a premise that could have been preachy, sentimental, or simplistic...and makes it candid and emotionally complex, spare, real, and deeply affecting. Gaitskill explores the complexities of love (mares, meres...) to bring us a novel that gallops along like a bracing bareback ride on a powerful Thoroughbred." -- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" "Remarkably tender, though thankfully not sentimental...A truthful meditation on the limits of birth and motherhood, surrogate motherhood, and mothering yourself." -- "Entertainment Weekly" "The juxtaposition of these women's lives...is dramatic. It's an education to see how different life looks filtered through the lens of privilege, race, and age." -- "Los Angeles Times"