We are thrilled to be adding to our list Dogwood — an extraordinary debut novel by 27 year old American author Lindsay Parnell. If you‘ve read The Help, you’ll have a vague idea of what to expect. Parnell writes in the pitch-perfect dialect of the American South as she tells the story of three girls growing up in Virginia.
Dogwood has been described as raw, painful, brutal and tender.
We will be publishing an interview with Lindsay Parnell in January 2015. Dogwood is published in March 2015.
“You’d think she was an angel if she wasn’t always flying so close to hell.”
Released from prison on probation, 19-year-old Harper Haley returns to the brutal, sweaty, dogwood scented landscape of her youth. Chronicling her homecoming and struggle for rehabilitation, this is the story of one girl’s sin, guilt and resurrection.
At the heart of the novel is the dangerous, obsessive sisterhood between Harper and her childhood friends Collier, a seductively destructive debutante, and Caro, a jaded dreamer yearning for escape. As Harper backslides into a violent cycle of sex, drugs and abuse, the sisterhood at the core of her identity, and of the story, begins to unravel.
Climaxing in the confession of the act that irreversibly altered her life and those closest to her, Dogwood is Harper’s story, the one she can’t forget and the one she cannot speak.
A compelling debut novel. Raw and violent, yet passionate, lyrical and beautifully written.
— Vesna Goldsworthy, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing; author of Gorsky and Chernobyl Strawberries
Parnell’s work is that rare beast – tender and brutal, beautiful and raw. Her prose sings off the page, though it’s with the voice of a debauched choir boy.
— Heidi James, author of Wounding
Lindsay Parnell was raised in Virginia.
Her short fiction has appeared in 3AM Magazine, The Prague Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Fem and others.
She owns 13 editions of The Bell Jar and shares a birthday with Meryl Streep.
Dogwood is her first novel.