Maggie Boylan
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
Set in Appalachian Ohio amid an epidemic of prescription opiate abuse, Michael Henson’s linked collection tells of a woman’s search for her own peculiar kind of redemption, and brings the novel-in-stories form to new heights. Maggie Boylan is an addict, thief, liar, and hustler. But she is also a woman of deep compassion and resilience. The stories follow Maggie as she spirals through her addictive process, through the court system and treatment, and into a shaky new beginning.
In these masterful stories, we rarely occupy Maggie’s perspective, but instead gain a multilayered portrait of a community as we see other people’s lives bump up against hers—and we witness her inserting herself into their spheres, refusing to be rebuffed. The result is a prismatic view of a community fighting to stay upright against the headwinds of a drug epidemic: always on edge, always human.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Trouble much of it self-inflicted follows Maggie Boylan, the unconventional hero of this powerful novel from Henson (Ransack). Maggie is "straight as a bullet, foul-mouthed, skinny, death-head-looking, Oxy-addled, thieving" a folk hero for the fentanyl-ravaged heartland. Set in the present day in the small town of Wolf Creek, Ohio, Henson's novel follows Maggie and those around her as the opioid epidemic upends their lives. She is a vivid, complex character, as likely to con a neighbor for $20 as she is to nurse an injured police officer back to health. But time is running out for her to change her ways. After she is framed for robbery, Maggie is given a choice by the court: treatment, parole, and monitored sobriety, or prison. Her addiction, which has already cost her custody of her children, her marriage, and countless friends, can no longer be ignored. In a series of self-contained stories, Henson uses an ensemble of narrators to tell Maggie's saga. Despite its short length, Henson's novel packs a punch: it's harrowing, haunted, and often beautiful.
