Publisher's Synopsis
One of the Best Books of the Year
The New York Times The Washington Post NPR San Francisco Chronicle Vanity Fair Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Kansas City Star
When Velveteen Vargas, an eleven-year-old Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn, comes to stay with a family in upstate New York, what begins as a two-week visit blossoms into something much more significant. Soon Velvet finds herself torn between her host family-Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic; and Paul, a college professor-and her own deeply tormented mother. The one constant becomes Velvet's newly discovered passion for horse riding-and especially for an abused, unruly mare named Fugly Girl. A stirring and deeply felt novel, The Mare is Mary Gaitskill's most poignant and powerful work yet-a stunning exploration of a girl and her horse, and of the way we connect with people from all walks of life.
