Winner of the S. Mariella Gable Prize
What if Molly Bloom took center stage? What if she lived in suburban
America? It is June 16, 1999, in Dublin Ohio, and Molly Bluhm wanders
while her husband, Leo, tends to a strict and busy professor’s
schedule. As Leo’s day mirrors the events of Joyce’s Bloomsday, Molly’s
is a nearly clean slate. On the surface of her thoughts, she wonders:
Will he remember their anniversary? And how many hints should she give
him? As Molly and Leo circle each other throughout the day,
Kitchen illuminates the scope of their life together, detail by detail.
Molly hums Irish tunes, watches a neighbor’s children, meets an old
love; Leo is occupied with his star pupil, young women at the tennis
court, his aging father. Both—if differently—mourn the loss of their
four-year-old son eight years ago.
In this momentous novel, Kitchen weaves these and other voices into the
tapestry of a single day, an ordinary day in the lives of ordinary
people, yet a day that, by gathering the threads of all they have been,
might change their lives forever. Strange, she was thinking, how we go
through our lives on remote control. But as Molly drives toward town, a
quick glance at a fatal car accident, which has slowed traffic to an
agonizing crawl, brings her to the precipice.
This book
is made possible through a partnership with the College of Saint
Benedict, and honors the legacy of S. Mariella Gable, a distinguished
teacher at the College.
Other books published through the partnership include:
Loverboy by Victoria Redel
One Vacant Chair by Joe Coomer
The Weatherman by Clint McCown
