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Sign up todayMarlena
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Learn moreAn electric debut novel about love, addiction, and loss; the story of two girls and the feral year that will cost one her life, and define the other’s for decades
Everything 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, inexperienced and desperate for connection, is quickly lured into Marlena’s orbit by little more than an arched eyebrow and a shake of white-blond hair.
As the two girls turn the untamed landscape of their desolate small town into a kind of playground, Cat catalogues a litany of firsts—first drink, first cigarette, first kiss—while Marlena’s habits harden and calcify. Within the year, Marlena is dead, drowned in six inches of icy water in the woods nearby.
Now, decades later, when a ghost from that pivotal year surfaces unexpectedly, Cat must try to forgive herself and move on, even as the memory of Marlena keeps her tangled in the past.
Alive with an urgent, unshakable tenderness, Julie Buntin’s Marlena is an unforgettable look at the people who shape us beyond reason and the ways it might be possible to pull oneself back from the brink.
Julie Buntin is an author whose debut novel, Marlena, earned high acclaim and was named a Best Book of the Year by major media, including Vogue, the Washington Post, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, NPR, Nylon, Huffington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and Barnes&Noble.com, among others. The book was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic; Cosmopolitan; O, The Oprah Magazine; Slate; Electric Literature; and One Teen Story, among other publications. She teaches fiction writing at Marymount Manhattan College and is the director of writing programs at Catapult.
Emma Galvin won the 2011 Audie Award for best fiction narration, was a finalist for the Audie Award in 2012, and won six AudioFile Earphones Awards for her narrations. A graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, her film appearances include My Suicidal Sweetheart, A Perfect Fit, and The Big Bad Swim. She has performed in several regional theater productions, including Love Punky, The Power of Birds, and The Realm.
Reviews
“Narrator Emma Galvin brings a slightly gritty yet vulnerable-sounding voice to the main character in this audiobook…a haunting yet tender story of growing up.”
“A novel of deep and exquisite intelligence, humor, and riveting sensitivity.”
“Captures that unique moment at the precipice of adulthood with emotional honesty and insight.”
"[A] dark, gorgeously written story.”
“In this icy and accomplished first novel, the intoxicating friendship between an inexperienced loner and her manic, wild-child neighbor continues to exert an irresistible pull on our narrator decades later.”
“Perfectly capture[s] the thrill of what it’s like to become best friends with the beautiful girl from the wrong crowd…[and is] one of the most sensitive portrayals of a Midwestern town struggling with poverty, drugs, and restlessness.”
“The telling is so intimate that one can miss, at first, that Marlena is addicted to the pills she carries around…The book is ostensibly about friendship and the indelible mark the troubled Marlena left on Cat, but it is also a quiet, powerful look at addiction.”
“The kind of coming-of-age friendship that goes beyond camaraderie, into a deeper bond that forges identity.”
“A novel about youth―a time of splendor and squalor. Buntin make us see, hear, and feel both."
“Reads nearly as compulsively as a thriller…Viscerally captures the sensations and heartaches of adolescence.”
“Poignant and unforgettable.”
“Devastating; as unforgettable as it is gorgeous.”
“Buntin’s prose is emotional and immediate, and the interior lives she draws of young women and obsessive best friends are Ferrante-esque.”
“This gorgeous, assured debut captures the romance of young friendship, cutting deep with the finest touch.”
“[This] visceral, gripping novel combines humanity with a thrilling edge.”
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