{"product_id":"9780374268121","title":"Stay and Fight : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Madeline ffitch\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Like \u003ci\u003eBastard Out of Carolina\u003c\/i\u003e, ffitch's electrifying debut novel is \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ea paean to independence and a protest against the materialism of our age.\" —\u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Delightfully raucous.\" —Sam Sacks, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend’s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy—her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss—and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women’s Land Trust must end.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo Helen invites the new family to throw in with her—they’ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet in a region known for its independent spirit, \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the term. And it is a marvel of storytelling that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it. Best of all, it is full of flawed, cantankerous, flesh-and-blood characters who remind us that conflict isn't the end of love, but the real beginning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbsorbingly spun, perfectly voiced, and disruptively political, Madeline ffitch's \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e forces us to reimagine an Appalachia—and an America—we think we know. And it takes us, laughing and fighting, into a new understanding of what it means to love and to be free.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times \u003c\/i\u003eBook Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the PEN\/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Best Book of 2019 at \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn Indie Next Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Most Anticipated Book of July at \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Book to Read in July at \u003ci\u003edebutiful \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eand \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eA. V. Club \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e Book of the Week\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like \u003ci\u003eBastard Out of Carolina\u003c\/i\u003e, ffitch's electrifying debut novel is a paean to independence and a protest against the materialism of our age.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The three-women trope gets a deliciously spirited spin in Madeline Ffitch’s debut novel \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e . . . \u003c\/i\u003eThe narrative plays out like \u003ci\u003eWinter’s Bone\u003c\/i\u003e with a dash of screwball as the self-described “wolf pack” attempts to live off the land, and the mothers work to raise a boy without the interference of the community, however well-intended . . . This book is packed with quick banter and unforgettable, deeply complicated characters, including a soft-hearted tree-trimmer named Rudy and many a raccoon, drake, and black snake.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Lauren Mechling, \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Delightfully raucous . . . ffitch’s superb comic novel evolves . . . touchingly depicting the tangled and tenacious family bonds that develop in wild places.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sam Sacks, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A contemporary feminist spin on the traditional pioneer novel . . . With \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e, ffitch aims to update the frontier narrative from a queer feminist perspective, spinning a tale of exodus from a cruel new America where pipelines and pollution pox the countryside . . . \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e succeeds in mapping the obscure psychological and emotional territory that defines a life caught between commitment and ambivalence, between rebellion and resignation.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Wes Enzinna, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fantastic . . . If the powers that be turn this into an award-winning HBO drama, which they should, they better not fuck with ffitch's language, or I'll chain myself to an excavator. She balances her good, clean, quick hick sentences with the natural lyricism of just using the actual names of trees and power tools.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Rich Smith, \u003ci\u003eThe Stranger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e is one of those rare books that simply knocked me over with the raw power of the writing and storytelling. I am so impressed with Madeline ffitch.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Vick Mickunas, WYSO Fresh Air\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Stay and Fight \u003c\/i\u003eis smart and self-aware enough to refuse any confident solution toward forging intimacy and independence under our current sociopolitical circumstances. It knows that such a solution does not exist. Rather, there is staying, there is fighting, and there is fighting to stay.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Scout Turkel, \u003ci\u003eZYZZYVA\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A thought-provoking examination of the independence and autonomy of the family unit . . . [Madeline ffitch] infuses the pages with a fierce and complex love of place. \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e is a dark warning about the environmental impact of fracking and pipelines, as well as an anthem to the families that we create.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kelly Roark, \u003ci\u003eNew City Lit\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A motley, makeshift family . . . must figure out how to preserve the things they love . . . and determine what's worth fighting against and for.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kristin Iversen, \u003ci\u003eNylon\u003c\/i\u003e, \"One of 35 Great Books to Read This Summer\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e explodes time-old stereotypes about the land and its people, delivering instead some of the most well-drawn and fascinating characters in recent memory.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Amy Brady, \u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A remarkable book—so knowing and generous, so gracefully written, you want to stand on a table and testify.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jim Phillips, \u003ci\u003eThe Athens News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eStay and Fight \u003c\/i\u003edoesn’t take sides along clear moral lines. It scrambles those basic American polarities of nature—the unspoiled goodness and the seductive resources — into a relationship that feels new.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Paul Constant, \u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Immersive and compelling, depicting the life of an Appalachian family that is equally unconventional and familiar . . . There is nothing flat or caricatured about the characters in ffitch’s novel . . . \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight \u003c\/i\u003ecarefully mixes an absurd humor with crushing devastation, so that we’re left incredulous about the circumstances and how we’ve arrived there.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—E. M. Tran, \u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Highly original.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Suzanne Van Atten, \u003ci\u003eAJC\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“ffitch flex[es] some finely honed talent with fictional conflict and plot, and as the prose hops perspective from the four central characters, including the wistfully complex Perley, we're engrossed in what’s next to a point of blind faith and hope.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatthew Bedard\u003ci\u003e, FLAUNT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A story of family, land, and dispossession. Madeline ffitch’s penetrating novel turns on a couple, Lily and Karen, who must leave their space on a Women’s Land Trust in Appalachia when they give birth to a son. Their evolving sense of relationships, home, and society are rendered with pathos and precision.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Samuel Partal of Community Book Store, \u003ci\u003eBrooklyn Paper\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A good, entertaining novel that redefines life and family.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Remarkable and gripping . . . The story is told in the alternating voices of Helen, Karen, Lily, and Perley, and ffitch navigates their personalities beautifully, creating complex, brilliantly realized characters. As the stakes rise, for both the family and the preservation of the region, the novel skewers stereotypes and offers only a messy, real depiction of people who fully embody the imperative of the novel’s title. This is a stellar novel.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e] envisions a more compassionate world where people can improve the institutions that are holding fast to an antiquated, environment-wrecking sensibility.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Mark Athitakis, \u003ci\u003eOn The Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Madeline ffitch's powerful debut beautifully illustrates how the bonds forged during hardship can become the rope that saves you.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Luisa Smith, Book Passage\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Engrossing, sometimes shocking and often witty . . . ffitch’s survival saga of strong, independent women will appeal to readers of Dorothy Allison’s \u003ci\u003eBastard out of Carolina\u003c\/i\u003e and the realistic novels by Manette Ansay, especially \u003ci\u003eVinegar Hill\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A socially conscious story about environment, feminism, and children rights.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Adam Vitcavage, \u003ci\u003edebutiful\u003c\/i\u003e, \"6 Debut Books You Should Read This July\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rendered, through its multiple first-person perspectives, with wit and nuance . . . A cleareyed, largehearted take on the social protest novel.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Madeline ffitch is unafraid of a good fight. Her first novel is a rousing celebration of conflict, in particular the conflict that comes with being a family: unspoken tensions, philosophical disagreements, painful words, messy brawls. \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003emakes the powerful argument that fighting within a family is necessary, formative; it’s the practice that prepares us to fight \u003ci\u003efor\u003c\/i\u003e our families when the time comes. Hers is the fiercest, wisest book about parenting that I’ve read in a very long time.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of\u003ci\u003e Ms. Hempel Chronicles\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If Carolyn Chute and Larry Brown and Carson McCullers had a love child, it might be Madeline ffitch’s brutal and brilliant debut novel, \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e. What a wise, funny, and shining story, born into the world just in time to teach us about friendship, hardship, self-reliance, and black rat snakes.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of \u003ci\u003eOnce Upon a River\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Madeline ffitch is one of the few \u003ci\u003ereal\u003c\/i\u003e writers on the planet. And \u003ci\u003eStay and Fight\u003c\/i\u003e is a real novel. ffitch has the real, funny, not funny, gorgeous, breathing world in her hands. She is giving it to you to hold for a while.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Carolyn Chute, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Beans of Egypt, Maine\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTreat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mythic and particular, domestic and political, modest and ambitious, strange and familiar, \u003ci\u003eStay and Figh\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003et\u003c\/i\u003e is a radical and ferocious success. The book disturbs the legacy of a frontier literature, and it points the way to a fresh conception of the Great American Novel.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Chris Bachelder, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Throwback Special\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In her debut novel, Madeline ffitch renders a loving and lawless portrait of a remarkable Appalachian family and the conventions that bind them with undeniable wit and brilliance. Fans of Joy Williams and Nell Zink will find a familiar, but ffitch brings her own compass to these woods and clears new ground while she’s out there. An enthralling debut.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Amelia Gray, author of \u003ci\u003eIsadora\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Madeline ffitch’s debut offering brilliantly tackles tensions among three women from diverse backgrounds and their son, struggling for freedom, self-sufficiency, and coexistence with nature, whose habitat they share in the very backwater of southeast Ohio. These endearing but sometimes quirky characters are portrayed with so much brutal tenderness, humor, honesty, and wisdom. Complex emotions and an intersectional worldview expressed in sparse prose that echoes the lyricism of the Appalachian hills.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eZakes Mda, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWays of Dying\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed New York Magazine Best Books of the Year (2019), Long-listed Amazon.com Best Books of the Year (2019), Short-listed Lambda Literary Award - Nominee (2020), Short-listed L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist (2019)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374268121\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40698550550734,"sku":"9780374268121","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_5b7ecd53-8d18-4b59-877b-76ff77d6c77a.jpg?v=1640492679","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374268121","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}