Today’s GalleyCrush is Claire Luchette’s Agatha of Little Neon, forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 3, 2021.
Perfect pitch: “‘Blazingly original, wry, and perfectly attuned to the oddness—and the profundity—of life’ (Cristina Henríquez), Claire Luchette’s debut, Agatha of Little Neon, is a novel about yearning and sisterhood, figuring out how you fit in (or don’t), and the unexpected friends who help you find your truest self.”
First lines: “Mother Roberta made the rules: no chewing gum, no bicycles, no tree nuts, no pets. Every morning she brewed the coffee and every night she cooked the meal. Twice a year she sewed our made-to-measure habits from yards of a black poly-wool blend. She embroidered pillows, made punch from powder, wrote the homilies for the priest.”
Book buzz: “Agatha of Little Neon is the rare kind of book that reads like a transmission from a person you don’t know, but who is already nestled close to your heart. Full of small devotions, pith and vigor, and a bounty of tender feeling for a world that is not quite as full of grace as it could be, this bold debut shines with a light all its own and announces Claire Luchette as a true original and a voice to follow closely.” —Alexandra Kleeman
Cover credit: June Park
Book notes: Hardcover, fiction, 288 pages.
Author bio: Claire Luchette’s work has appeared in Granta, Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares, among other publications. A 2020 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Luchette graduated from the University of Oregon MFA program and has received grants and scholarships from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Millay Colony, Lighthouse Works, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the James Merrill House. Agatha of Little Neon is her first novel.
