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The Daughter Ship: A Novel
Current price:
$27.00
Publication Date: June 27th, 2023
Publisher:
Pantheon
ISBN:
9780593317297
Pages:
288
Prince Books
1 on hand, as of Apr 24 3:13pm
(FICTION HARDCOVER)
On Our Shelves Now
Description
This irreverent debut delivers a headlong human comedy of trauma and triumph, narrated by the concealed inner selves of a woman on the brink: Katherine, a lost creative soul and suburban mother of two, who has struggled into her forties with the urge to self-harm.
"Tracks the scattered parts of one woman as she fractures and finds herself over the course of her lifetime. A wholly original and unforgettable debut." —Julia Phillips, best-selling author of Disappearing Earth
Katherine, an attentive mother to her teenagers, comfortably married to her strapping provider of a husband, longs to overcome her dark thoughts and intermittent fears of sexual intimacy.
This brisk, mesmerizing version of her life is told in alternating short chapters by Truitt, Star, and Smooshed Bug—her inner children, each with their particular strategy for coping with Katherine’s past at the hands of a hopeless mother and a terrifying, seductive father. Several of her female ancestors, Confederate widows and their daughters, who’ve imposed a legacy of racism and damage on her bloodline, also join the telling.
The assembled ghosts and contenders for Katherine’s ear are gathered in a rusting WWII submarine off the coast of Virginia Beach where the truth of her life is, quite literally, submerged. Will they surface with it? Will they protect her from it, or deliver it to her?
This unforgettable chorus of charming selves, battling over Katherine’s wellbeing, is unified by their hope for her future, as they collaborate to shape a personal narrative like no other we’ve experienced in fiction.
Praise for The Daughter Ship: A Novel
"“Polyphonic . . . Wildly imaginative and probing… Like the most successful experimental novels, this one teaches us how to read it. Through the chorus of inner children stuck beneath the surface of Katherine’s consciousness, Trundle illustrates both how adults can disengage from traumatic paths and how these walls can be broken down . . . [her] fearless voice instills faith…You’ll want to start the book again as soon as you finish.” —Atticus Review
“Boo Trundle’s novel The Daughter Ship startles in the best of ways, in its inventiveness, in its humor, and in its truths. This powerful debut is one of the year’s best books.” —David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
“Wild as stormy water, turbulent as a human heart, The Daughter Ship is a novel like none you've ever read before. It tracks the scattered parts of one woman as she fractures and finds herself over her lifetime. Boo Trundle is a deep, dark, far-seeing storyteller, who has written a wholly original and unforgettable debut.” —Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth (National Book Award Finalist)
“This brilliant first novel is about liberation from the past and from whatever keeps us in the past. We circle around it until we glimpse, along with the narrators, the source of this jangly unease—stars, memories, clouds? Marriage, pills, sex? In the end it’s about one moment when we get to say who we are and where we come from and to see it all as golden. Prepare to devour this book.” —Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
“This is a stunningly original, compulsively readable, darkly funny, and profoundly moving novel about the emotional cargo women carry in our minds and bodies, and how healing is possible—even from our deepest, darkest secrets.” —Leigh Stein, author of Self Care
“I loved The Daughter Ship, a novel about sexual trauma in which a multiplicity of people are contained within each person, and trace elements of history migrate across generations. This is a witty, clear-eyed, and devastating debut.” —Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick
“I was absolutely hooked, admiring, and delighted at its boldness and magic. I fell over with laughter.” —Pamela Erens, author of The Virgins
"Like Jesus' Son in its frenetic energy and storyline, The Daughter Ship taps into a supernatural, transformative power. And it's FUNNY! Truly darkly hilarious." —Laura Sims, author of How Can I Help You
"The Daughter Ship endures in your mind, soul, and heart. Through corporeal evocation, vulnerability and humanity, it builds up the reader's capacity for intensity, until the reaction changes. There’s a tonic in it.” —Christie Henry, director Princeton University Press
"Inventive . . . intriguing . . . Trundle convincingly portrays her protagonist’s warring inner life." —Publishers Weekly
“Trundle’s book is as cheekily humorous as it is deadly serious, a chaotic performance art piece wearing a novel as a disguise . . . A wildly strange reading experience that disorients and exhilarates in equal measure.” —Kirkus Reviews
