Marlena (A Novel) - Julie Buntin

A National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize FinalistLonglisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel PrizeNamed a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, Esquire,Harper''s Bazaar, NPR, NYLON, Huffington Post, Kirkus Reviews, Barnes & NobleChosen for the Book of the Month Club, Nylon Book Club, and Belletrist Book ClubNamed an Indie Next Pick and a Barnes and Noble Discover PickEverything about fifteen-year-old Cat’s new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. Cat is quickly drawn into Marlena’s orbit and as she catalogues a litany of firsts—first drink, first cigarette, first kiss, first pill—Marlena’s habits harden and calcify. Within a year, Marlena is dead, drowned in six inches of icy water in the woods nearby. Now, decades later, Cat must try again to move on, even as the memory of Marlena calls her back.Told in a haunting dialogue between past and present, Marlena is the captivating story of an intoxicating, indelible friendship that does not flinch from the resonant effects of its loss.