The Mare: A Novel

Following her National Book Award nominated Veronica, here is Mary Gaitskill s most poignant and powerful work yet the story of a Dominican girl, the Anglo woman who introduces her to riding, and the horse who changes everything for her.

Velveteen Vargas is eleven years old, a Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic, and her academic husband, Paul, who wonder what it will mean to make a difference in such a contrived situation. Gaitskill illuminates their shifting relationship with Velvet over several years, as well as Velvet s encounter with the horses at the stable down the road especially with an abused, unruly mare called Fugly Girl. With strong supporting characters Velvet s abusive mother, an eccentric horse trainer, a charismatic older boy who awakens Velvet s nascent passion The Mare traces Velvet s journey between the vital, violent world of the inner city and the world of the small-town stable.

In Gaitskill s hands, the timeless story of a girl and a horse is joined with a timely story of people from different races and classes trying to meet one another honestly. The Mare is raw, heart-stirring, and original.