Bemused by her gentle middle-aged hosts, but deeply intuitive in the way of clever children, Velvet quickly senses the longing behind Ginger’s rapturous attention. While Velvet returns her affection, she finds the intensity of it bewildering. Velvet’s own passions are more excited by the stables nearby, where she discovers she has a natural talent for riding and a deep affinity with the damaged horses cared for there. But when Ginger begins to entertain fantasies of adopting her, things start to get complicated for everyone involved.
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behaviour, Because They Wanted To and Don’t Cry and the novels Veronica and Two Girls Fat and Thin. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories.
Hamnet
An American Marriage - 2019 Winner
Home Fire - 2018 Winner
The Power - 2017 Winner
The Glorious Heresies - 2016 Winner
How to be both - 2015 Winner
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - 2014 Winner
May We Be Forgiven - 2013 Winner
The Song of Achilles - 2012 Winner
The Tiger's Wife - 2011 Winner
The Lacuna - 2010 Winner
Home - 2009 Winner
The Road Home - 2008 Winner
Half of a Yellow Sun - 2007 Winner
On Beauty - 2006 Winner
We Need to Talk About Kevin - 2005 Winner
Small Island - 2004 Winner
Property - 2003 Winner
Bel Canto - 2002 Winner
The Idea of Perfection - 2001 Winner
When I Lived in Modern Times - 2000 Winner
A Crime in the Neighborhood - 1999 Winner
Larry’s Party - 1998 Winner
Fugitive Pieces - 1997 Winner
A Spell of Winter - 1996 Winner
VOTE
Vote for your favourite #WomensPrize winner
Cast your vote for your favourite #ReadingWomen book and decide who will be our Winner of Winners in our 25th year.
Sign up to the Women's Prize for Fiction newsletter and win all 25 Prize winning books, including our 2020 winner Hamnet.
You'll be the first to hear about exciting author events and our latest news, and you can unsubscribe at any time.