Twine

When Juniper Kowalski, a mediocre artist and graduate of one of the best art schools in the country, gets pregnant by her married lover, she ends up back in Gobles, Michigan, living in her dead grandma’s trailer. She fears that her new life as a hotel maid, and as the best friend of a subrural call girl, has fulfilled some bleak fate. But Juniper’s pregnancy also ignites a will to create. Every hurt that she’s ever suffered begins to emerge as confrontational, public art.

Family lore has taught Juniper disdain for men. But it’s not hatred for her absent father, abusive grandpa, or even her baby daddy, causing her issues. It’s facing actual love from a big, flawed, breathtaking man. “Twine” celebrates a quietly radical view of small-town life, ambition, and motherhood. It is the story of a young woman who needs no hero, and what she does when he shows up anyway.

“There is so much to love and admire about TWINE—in fact, everything.

Monica Duncan’s characters are authentic and lovable, their relationships absorbing, their causes just. What a pleasure to read a book that is equal parts brain, heart, and good old-fashioned storytelling. It was hard to leave these pages.”
– Elinor Lipman, author of Good Riddance, On Turpentine Lane, The Inn at Lake Devine

“Twine may seem like a familiar story about a woman with a broken heart grappling to start her life over, but in fact this novel is a unique celebration of friendship, motherhood, art, work, and the way women juggle it all. The unique Michigan setting, coupled with the fact that so many of the characters strive to make ends meet as hotel maids, janitors, and store clerks, gives the novel added depth, making this a classic and profound tale about working class America.”
– Holly Robinson, author of Folly Cove