Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

WITH TEETH

Kristen Arnett

From the author of the New York Timesbestselling sensation Mostly Dead Things: a surprising and moving story of two mothers, one difficult son, and the limitations of marriage, parenthood, and love

If she's being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her bestdriving, cleaning, cooking, prodding him to finish projects for schoolwhile growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie's life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels. When her son's hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the messand the possibility that it will never be clean again.

Blending the warmth and wit of Arnett's breakout hit, Mostly Dead Things, with a candid take on queer family dynamics, With Teeth is a thought-provoking portrait of the delicate fabric of familyand the many ways it can be torn apart.

Kristen Arnett is the NYT bestselling author of the debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, '19). She is a queer fiction and essay writer. She was awarded Ninth Letter's Literary Award in Fiction and is a columnist for Literary Hub. Her work has appeared at North American Review, The Normal School, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, Guernica, Buzzfeed, Electric Literature, McSweeneys, PBS Newshour, Bennington Review, Tin House Flash Fridays/The Guardian, Salon, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her story collection, Felt in the Jaw, was published by Split Lip Press and was awarded the 2017 Coil Book Award. She is a Spring 2020 Shearing Fellow at Black Mountain Institute. You can find her on Twitter here: @Kristen_Arnett

Available products
Book Published by Riverhead

Comments

In With Teeth a novel as humid and feral and teeming with life as Florida itself Arnett is fearless in how far she's willing to go to show the darkest places we inhabit, as women, mothers, lovers, and people.

Arnett proves so adept at staging sensuous tragicomedies against the often-freakish backdrop of Florida Come for the wackiness and wonder of queer family dynamics, stay for the poignant portrait of motherhood on the brink.

[A] biting and funny take on queer families.

Corsair

With Teeth is captivating and scathingly frank a story of motherhood stripped of every ribbon of sentimentality.

[A]gloriously messy, eminently Floridian tale"

HarperCollins Brazil

[A]gloriously messy, eminently Floridian tale"

Arnett deftly examines the psychological dynamics of a family, raising complicated questions about whether mothers can ever truly understand how to raise sons and whether our children, too often, are mirrors of our own worst tendencies A novel that is not afraid to look at the underbelly of parenting, queer relationships, and middle age.

A gripping read Unabashedly queer, probing and unafraid, With Teeth is an exceedingly engaging sophomore outing from Arnett, solidifying her place in the pantheon of contemporary writers taking long, hard looks at difficult and at-times unseemly topics without shying away from humanity's worst impulses.

With Teeth is sublimely weird, fluently paced, brazenly funny and gayer still, and it richly deserves to find readers.

A gripping read Unabashedly queer, probing and unafraid, With Teeth is an exceedingly engaging sophomore outing from Arnett, solidifying her place in the pantheon of contemporary writers taking long, hard looks at difficult and at-times unseemly topics without shying away from humanity's worst impulses.