At the Edge of Haight

Is it too soon to talk about books coming out in January!?! There are just so many books about to be published in the new year, and this is one book I’ve been looking forward to and very excited about.

𝘼𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙃𝙖𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 (pub 1/5/2021) is the 10th Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver.

I’m about to dive into this book, and I can foresee it opening my eyes and pulling me into a world I know very little about. I can’t imagine the struggles a young homeless person must endure, and I know the story will demand that I take a closer look.

💬What are you looking forward to in January?

𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: Maddy Donaldo, homeless at twenty, has made a family of sorts in the dangerous spaces of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She knows whom to trust, where to eat, when to move locations, and how to take care of her dog. It’s the only home she has. When she unwittingly witnesses the murder of a young homeless boy and is seen by the perpetrator, her relatively stable life is upended. Suddenly, everyone from the police to the dead boys’ parents want to talk to Maddy about what she saw. As adults pressure her to give up her secrets and reunite with her own family before she meets a similar fate, Maddy must decide whether she wants to stay lost or be found. Against the backdrop of a radically changing San Francisco, a city which embraces a booming tech economy while struggling to maintain its culture of tolerance, At the Edge of the Haight follows the lives of those who depend on makeshift homes and communities.

“What a read this is, right from its startling opening scene. But even more than plot, it’s the richly layered details that drive home a lightning bolt of empathy. To read At the Edge of the Haightis to live inside the everyday terror and longings of a world that most of us manage not to see, even if we walk past it on sidewalks every day. At a time when more Americans than ever find themselves at the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be more timely.” 
— Barbara Kingsolver