Dogwood by Lindsay Parnell
Critics’ Reviews
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
A compelling debut novel. Raw and violent, yet passionate, lyrical and beautifully writtenAn anatomist of the human heart.
— Vesna Goldsworthy, author of Gorsky and Chernobyl Strawberries
Lindsay Parnell’s dialogue has a startling and exciting immediacy. Her American South has its literary roots in Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty, but with a difference. Her characters swear a lot, smoke a lot, drink a lot, and do everything to believable excess. This is a really promising debut.
— Paul Bailey, Booker-shortlisted author of Chapman’s Odyssey and The Prince’s Boy
Exploring issues of family, identity, poverty, abuse and survival, Dogwood is uncomfortably, painfully brilliant; introducing a distinctive new voice while taking the reader on a dangerous joyride sure to leave them reeling despite the damage sustained en route. Powerful, bruising, brutal and perfect.
— Jane Bradley, founder and director of For Books’ Sake
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Lindsay Parnell’s explosive new novel is an unflinching chronicle of sisterhood in the New South. Harper Haley is a young girl caught in a whirlpool of abuse, bad love and bad choices, and her only two friends Collier and Caro may be the very ones who help her drown. The lyrical prose captures the dialect perfectly. If you liked Bastard out of Carolina, you won’t be able to put Dogwood down.
— Tommy Zurhellen, author of Nazareth, North Dakota