Loverboy

Winner of the S. Mariella Gable Prize

What happens if a mother loves her child too much? Sybil and Marty, indifferent to their daughter in life, left her a small fortune and the cryptic advice, “It would do you well to find a passion.” In Victoria Redel’s utterly mesmerizing new novel, we listen to the voice of this daughter as she willfully sets out to become a mother—who is nothing if not passionate.

She has named her son Paul, but calls him “Birdie,” “Cookie,” “Puppy,” “Loverboy,” as she creates a wonderful, magical world for two, a world filled with books, music, endless games, and bottomless devotion. “Has ever a mother loved a child more?” she wonders as they play spy on strangers from behind their heavy, lace curtains. But as life outside begins to beckon to the boy, the mother’s efforts to keep their small world confined become increasingly frantic and ultimately tragic.

In this exquisite debut novel, Victoria Redel takes us deep into the mind of a very singular mother, and yet through her we see the dangerously whisper-thin line between selfless and selfish motivation that exists in all devotion. After all, “Who has ever wanted to share a love?”

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:
The House on Eccles Road by Judith Kitchen
One Vacant Chair by Joe Coomer
The Weatherman by Clint McCown