| Vendor | |
|---|---|
|
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| English | |
MONA
A compelling high-concept literary debut.
Written in spare but sophisticated prose, readers will be spell-bound by MONA's powerful writing and struck by the emotional resonance of the novel's themes, which will appeal to readers who loved Ottessa Moshfegh's MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION and Leila Slimani's ADELE.
MONA follows a group of women as they explore their relationship with desirability and seek to gain control over their identities. In a Boston department store a new cosmeceutical skincare range is unveiled. MONA looks like ordinary makeup - blush, lipstick - but it is custom-made for each user. It promises to perfect its wearers by enhancing their unique hormone profile'.
Shelly is feeling bruised and disoriented by a break-up with her boyfriend P. She believes MONA could give her the confidence - the wildness - to win P. back. But MONA is addictive and its potent side effects are destabilising and regressive, mimicking the emotional turbulence of adolescence. By the time Shelly reunites with P., she is losing her sense of self.
At Therese Beverly, Shelly's old girls' school, four teenage friends obtain their own batch of MONA. They experiment together, using MONA to draw closer to each other as their graduation approaches. As they reveal intimacies, Mally, a student in the year below, secretly observes them. Mally has fallen hard for one of the group and is questioning her identity. When they discover her eavesdropping, they seek to secure her silence with an invitation. But by graduation day - and as a fraying Shelly visits the school for the celebration - the group has fractured and one of the friends is missing.
Interspersed between the narratives following Shelly and Mally are vignettes featuring women across America, building a kaleidoscopic portrait of the MONA phenomenon and women's responses to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Georgina Parfitt grew up in Norfolk but moved to the US aged 19 to study English Literature at Harvard and then teach Creative Writing at Boston University. She now lives in London. Her stories and essays have been published in The Atlantic, The Southampton Review, The Common, and The Dublin Review, among other publications. MONA is her debut novel.
MONA follows a group of women as they explore their relationship with desirability and seek to gain control over their identities. In a Boston department store a new cosmeceutical skincare range is unveiled. MONA looks like ordinary makeup - blush, lipstick - but it is custom-made for each user. It promises to perfect its wearers by enhancing their unique hormone profile'.
Shelly is feeling bruised and disoriented by a break-up with her boyfriend P. She believes MONA could give her the confidence - the wildness - to win P. back. But MONA is addictive and its potent side effects are destabilising and regressive, mimicking the emotional turbulence of adolescence. By the time Shelly reunites with P., she is losing her sense of self.
At Therese Beverly, Shelly's old girls' school, four teenage friends obtain their own batch of MONA. They experiment together, using MONA to draw closer to each other as their graduation approaches. As they reveal intimacies, Mally, a student in the year below, secretly observes them. Mally has fallen hard for one of the group and is questioning her identity. When they discover her eavesdropping, they seek to secure her silence with an invitation. But by graduation day - and as a fraying Shelly visits the school for the celebration - the group has fractured and one of the friends is missing.
Interspersed between the narratives following Shelly and Mally are vignettes featuring women across America, building a kaleidoscopic portrait of the MONA phenomenon and women's responses to it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Georgina Parfitt grew up in Norfolk but moved to the US aged 19 to study English Literature at Harvard and then teach Creative Writing at Boston University. She now lives in London. Her stories and essays have been published in The Atlantic, The Southampton Review, The Common, and The Dublin Review, among other publications. MONA is her debut novel.