Ashland
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A MARCH 2026 INDIE NEXT PICK
★ “Powerfully poetic...a testament to American virtues—and flaws.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A deeply moving family story unfolding in richly evocative prose during the final decades of the American century, Ashland is a book of metamorphoses—of the dance between permanence and transformation.
The story takes place in Ashland, New Hampshire, a former mill town in the lakes region, and is told in six voices, among them Carolyn, a twenty year old writer at a turning point in her life; Gordon, who arrives in Ashland in the twilight of his years; Andy, a local boy; Geoff, Carolyn's writing teacher at Plymouth State; and Edith, Gordon's wife, who is inadvertently Carolyn's spiritual guide and friend. Then there is Jennie, Carolyn's aunt, who seems to offer her a model for how to live. But things aren't always what they seem, and Carolyn must discover her own rules and make her own way.
Ashland is a debut novel of great intensity, beautifully told in the voices of many vivid characters and, through them, in the voice of Ashland itself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Simon, the founding publisher of Seven Stories and coauthor of Run Run Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman, captures the rhythms of small-town New Hampshire in his lyrical debut novel. It unfolds in a series of first-person narratives, mainly voiced by Carolyn, who, at age 20 in 1992, likens her life to a "kitchen drawer that's already full of all the things I think I'll do." She forges tight bonds with her mother and aunt Jennie, who became mothers when they were young. A handful of men float through their lives, though none of them seem to be permanent. They include Jennie's husband, who marries her in 1980, when she's 14, and Carolyn's writing teacher at a state college. Elsewhere, elderly local Gordon reflects on his "earned optimism" from surviving the Depression and the happiness he found with his wife. Characters describe shared experiences in different ways, but the plot is driven less by events than Carolyn's yearning—she often feels like the birds around her, skittering "from branch to branch, speaking the language of restlessness." In the second half, Carolyn deals with her grief following an unforeseen suicide, and Simon skillfully shows how her active mind carries her through ("I make lists in my mind of the people I know, the dead and the living"). This leaves a lasting impression. Correction: An earlier version of this review misdescribed one of the character's circumstances.
