The Untended: A Novel

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

For fans of Rachel Kushner and Gillian Flynn, a gritty contemporary debut novel that puts Katniss Everdeen into Euphoria.

Casch Abbey is a waitress, single mom, and recreational boxer who falls in love twice: first with a veteran who secretly grows pot on a rich mans land in Vermonts Green Mountains, and then with a painkiller that eases her long-buried pain.

After her foot is crushed under the wheel of a station wagon, Casch loses her waitressing gig and goes brokeand the meds for her foot are her only source of relief. But when the drug is recalled due to outcries of widespread addiction, Caschs dependence imperils her already tenuous life, as cravings lead her into her small towns simmering netherworld.

Intimate and exhilarating, The Untended will upend your every assumption about who is a hero and who is worthy of love.

Reviews

I couldnt look away. The Untended is a feat of storytelling, with a narrator you can't help rooting for caught up in a system that might grind her up. With all the tension of thriller paired with the deeply felt poetry of lyrical realism, I couldnt admire this novel more.Liz Harmer, author of Strange Loops and The Amateurs

The Untended is addictive (in the best sense imaginable). It will simply sweep you into the lives (and crises) of Casch Abbey and her children. Dont miss it!Tom Engelhardt, author of Shadow Government

An intense, crisply told story of resilience in small-town New England, with characters dragged into a mire of emotional and financial hopelessness, with the drug industry about to turn the final screws. Or maybe not Kramer knows how to draw you in so you feel the journey is your own.Jude Berman, author of The Die

Mattea Kramers The Untended is as unflinching and memorable as its protagonista single mother and boxer who is strong enough to get off the mat even when life throws her a haymaker.Jesse Donaldson, author of The More They Disappear

A life-affirming story of gumption, resourcefulness, and ferocious attachment.Nancy D. Campbell, author of The Narcotic Farm

Author Bio

Mattea Kramer is a writer and researcher who has been published in The Nation and has appeared on MSNBC. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.