Shadows of Pecan Hollow
A Novel
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Crook's Corner Book Prize, finalist for the Golden Poppy Award, and longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
"This immersive, full-bodied novel will keep its hooks in you long after the last page is read, and marks the arrival of a tremendously wise and talented writer."—Ben Fountain
Set in 1970-90s Texas, a mesmerizing story about a fierce woman and the partner-in-crime she can’t escape, perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and Valentine.
It was 1970 when thirteen-year-old runaway Kit Walker was abducted by Manny Romero, a smooth-talking, low-level criminal, who first coddled her and then groomed her into his partner-in-crime. Before long, Kit and Manny were infamous for their string of gas station robberies throughout Texas, making a name for themselves as the Texaco Twosome.
Twenty years after they meet, Kit has scraped together a life for herself and her daughter amongst the pecan trees and muddy creeks of the town of Pecan Hollow, far from Manny. But when he shows up at her doorstep a new man, fresh out of prison, Kit is forced to reckon with the shadows of her past.
A gritty, penetrating, and unexpectedly tender novel, Shadows of Pecan Hollow is a hauntingly intimate and distinctly original debut about the complexity of love—both romantic and familial—and the bonds that define us.
“Paper Moon meets Badlands in this mesmerizing Texas backroads thriller, a twisty story of a runaway girl who finds a home and a desperate love on the road with an opportunistic criminal.”—Janet Fitch
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Frost debuts with the captivating if messy story of a woman who comes of age amid a life of crime. At 13, foster child Kit Walker meets Manny Romero at a Texas gas station. Manny grooms her as an accomplice for thefts and eventually armed robbery, and when Kit is 19 Manny gets her pregnant. He wants Kit to have an abortion, but she breaks away from him, carving out a hardscrabble life for herself and her daughter, Charlie, in the small town of Pecan Hollow. Fourteen years later, Manny, fresh from prison and claiming to be reformed, tracks her down. The author does a bang-up job fleshing out Kit's young life, creating the perfect storm of circumstances—feeling abandoned and undeserving of love as she is shuffled from one foster family to the next—for her to trust a stranger who treats her with a kindness she's never known. Once Manny comes back, however, the story goes a bit off the rails, as Manny charms the residents of Pecan Hollow, including the teenage Charlie, and Kit worries Manny will take Charlie away from her. Much melodrama ensues, including some gratuitous violence. Nevertheless, Frost offers plenty of punchy lines (on Manny: "His careful calm gave way to a bulldozing rage"). It's uneven, but there's promise here.
