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GATHER THE DAUGHTERS

Jennie Melamed

NEVER LET ME GO meets THE GIVER in this haunting debut about a cult on an isolated island, where nothing is as it seems.
Years ago, just before the country was incinerated to wasteland, ten men and their families colonized an island off the coast. They built a radical society of ancestor worship, controlled breeding, and the strict rationing of knowledge and history. Only the Wanderers--chosen male descendants of the original ten--are allowed to cross to the wastelands, where they scavenge for detritus among the still-smoldering fires. The daughters of these men are wives-in-training. At the first sign of puberty, they face their Summer of Fruition, a ritualistic season that drags them from adolescence to matrimony. They have children, who have children, and when they are no longer useful, they take their final draught and die. But in the summer, the younger children reign supreme. With the adults indoors and the pubescent in Fruition, the children live wildly--they fight over food and shelter, free of their fathers' hands and their mothers' despair. And it is at the end of one summer that little Caitlin Jacob sees something so horrifying, so contradictory to the laws of the island, that she must share it with the others. Born leader Janey Solomon steps up to seek the truth. At seventeen years old, Janey is so unwilling to become a woman, she is slowly starving herself to death. Trying urgently now to unravel the mysteries of the island and what lies beyond, before her own demise, she attempts to lead an uprising of the girls that may be their undoing. GATHER THE DAUGHTERS is a smoldering debut; dark and energetic, compulsively readable, Melamed's novel announces her as an unforgettable new voice in fiction. Jennie Melamed is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who specializes in working with traumatized children. During her doctoral work at the University of Washington, she investigated anthropological, biological, and cultural aspects of child sexual abuse. Jennie lives in Seattle with her husband and their two dogs.
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Published 2017-07-25 by Little Brown

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[S]pooky, sure-footed debut… It’s a provocative, dystopian page-turner about patriarchy run amok—just the thing to tide you over until the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale.

“Set on an enchanted island where magic is replaced by Freudian nightmare, Gather the Daughters is an eerie, claustrophobic tale in the spirit of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Grimm's fairy tales. In her extraordinary first novel, Melamed pulls no punches. The young girls in this story are both victims of violence and perpetrators of it. They are survivors and warriors. Forget your conventional coming-of-age morality tales--this book is about the gory transition from girlhood to womanhood and how difficult it is to balance animal instinct with the pragmatism of endurance. A gripping and elegantly-crafted read.” Joshua Gaylord, author of When We Were Animals

UK: Tinder Press ; Brazil: Rocco ; China: Beijing Time-Chinese Publishing ; France: Anne Carrière ; Hungary: Athenaeum ; Portugal: 2020

Book of the Week! - Spooky, sure-footed debut… It’s a provocative, dystopian page-turner about patriarchy run amok—just the thing to tide you over until the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Read more...

With her debut novel, Melamed, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, excels in conveying the deep implicationsofabusiverelationships. Read more...

In Gather the Daughters, girls and women face a world that is brutal, insidious, and unjust—and yet, hope and resilience persist. This is a lush, vivid, and chilling novel. A remarkable and unforgettable debut.

[C]ompulsive and suspenseful debut… This beautifully and carefully constructed work pulls no punches in its depiction of a bleak future; it will attract fans of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale...

Interview with Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters Read more...

GATHER THE DAUGHTERS was selected as a Best of 2017 title in a number of prominent publications: Daily Mail: Best Debuts of 2017 Daily Express: Best of 2017 Red Magazine: Best of 2017 The Guardian: "Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017" Michigan Daily: Top 10 Books.

An intriguing, gorgeously realized and written novel which inexorably draws you into its dark heart.

Melamed's haunting and powerful debut blazes a fresh path in the tradition of classic dystopian works...a searing portrayal of a utopian society gone wrong...Melamed's prose is taut and precise. Her nuanced characters and honest examination of the crueler sides of human nature establish her as a formidable author in the vein of Shirley Jackson and Margaret Atwood.

Author essay, "What It’s Like to Have Your Dad Come Out as Gay" Read more...

“Lyrical and ferocious, Jennie Melamed’s Gather the Daughters follows the young daughters of an isolated society who start to question the truths of their world. Melamed paints the joys and anxieties of girlhood with visceral force as the puzzle deepens and the consequences multiply. An heir to the speculative creations of Margaret Atwood and Shirley Jackson, Gather the Daughters is a darkly compelling read.”

Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017.reads likeThe Handmaid's Tale crossed with Lord of the Flies, and manages to extract some sharp-edged hope from its story of an island community where men rule and women are ruled. Read more...

GATHER THE DAUGHTERS is one of the Best Book Club Picks for June 2017 Read more...

Best of July. “This summer, don’t miss Gather the Daughters, a novel from a new talent, Jennie Melamed, which has a mood reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, but with a plot and style all its own. “ Read more...

A chilling, vividly realised feminist novel that propels the reader into the dark heart of a cruelly repressive and sinister society. Read more...

the one book you should read this month! Read more...

10 Things I'd Like My Readers To Know About Me - Jennie Melamed writes a piece for us upon the release of her new book Gather The Daughters. Read more...

GATHER THE DAUGHTERS was named a People pick of the week and featured in Entertainment Weekly

Excerpt featured, along with Jennie Melamed’s story of the real world inspirations behind the book and how her work with traumatized children lead her to create this powerful novel whose message resonates across cultures worldwide. Read more...

Gather the Daughters is one of the most gorgeous debut novels of the summer. While it bears some inevitable comparisons to certain contemporary favorites—The Handmaid’s Tale, The Giver, Never Let Me Go, even Spring Awakening,—first time author Jennie Melamed has released a whole new world that spins entirely on its own axis. Read more...

This is set to be one of the big books of the summer.

Summer book pick, alongside Arundhati Roy, Sherman Alexie, Maile Meloy, Roxane Gay, and other bestselling authors. Read more...

In this blending of repressive regime with dystopian future, "Gather the Daughters" shares a genetic code with Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" and Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale." Read more...

Gripping, haunting portrayal of girls coming of age and questioning everything they’ve ever been taught. Read more...

Melamed is a masterful writer, and she establishes a hauntingly vivid atmosphere…. This is a haunting work in the spirit of The Handmaid’s Tale—but Melamed more than holds her own…. Fearsome, vivid, and raw: Melamed’s work describes a world of indoctrination and revolt.

Author essay, “How Writing Let Me Take Control of My Own Story” Read more...

Gather The Daughters is extraordinary, powerful, and harrowing—and yet hopeful in its portrait of the human spirit and the endurance of love. This is a visceral book on all levels and it is haunting me still.

[G]orgeous writing… Readers will find dread washing over them as the story unfolds, and will be left catching their breath when the full backstory dawns on them.

Best Summer Reading! It is an unexpected event during one of these wild summers which unleashes the novel’s heartstopping dramatic turn and from that point, it’s irresistible. At times harrowing in its depiction of cruelty, at other times joy-filled and buoyed by the spirit of liberated girlhood, this is an exhilarating, feminist cry-out which I hope finds a wide readership.

Best of 2017 "With The Handmaid's Tale being this year's must-see TV, this chilling, dystopian debut novel set on an isolated island where a small patriarchal community have set up home after an apocalypse felt very of the moment."

Named a top July pick by prominent literary critic Boris Kachka: “Melamed hasn’t written a simple didactic dystopia; her island is more brutal but also more hopeful than the usual brave new world — if only the four girls facing its horrific rituals can learn the truth in time.”