Devotion

by Maile Meloy

Genres: Family Life; Literary Fiction; Short Stories

Synopsis

From one of the most popular and acclaimed story writers of her generation, a single-volume short story from the author of 2017’s Do Not Become Alarmed.

That the yellow house was thrillingly affordable might have been a warning sign, if Eleanor had known how to read it. But she'd been desperate. She was sharing a room with her four-year-old daughter, Hattie, in her parents' house, and she had to get out.

From the award-winning novelist and short story writer Maile Meloy, Devotion: A Rat Story is an exquisitely unsettling tale about a young single mother whose new home becomes a kind of nightmare she must resolve on her own.

Eleanor is in such a rush to move away from her parents that she allows an imperious realtor to rush her to close on the too-good-to-be-true home without an inspection. Shortly after the house becomes legally hers-with every cent and all of her pride and future tied up in the property-the giant rats show themselves. In the yard, in the kitchen, on her daughter's bed. A walk around the block reveals a decrepit neighboring house where two elderly sisters are feeding and fostering thousands of unusual "pets." What has Eleanor done? What action can she possibly take now?

In Meloy's characteristically clean, assured style, she captures the hopes and horrors of domestic life with an element of suspense that drives the listener feverishly to the end.

Release date: April 28, 2015

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Print pages: 112

Sample

“[Meloy is] a wise and astonishing conjurer of convincing realities.”

—The New Yorker

That the yellow house was thrillingly affordable might have been a warning sign, if Eleanor had known how to read it. But she’d been desperate. She was sharing a room with her four-year-old daughter, Hattie, in her parents’ house, and she had to get out. Her parents didn’t want her to leave, but that was part of the problem. What her mother really wanted was to have Eleanor back inside her, along with Hattie, nested like matryoshka dolls.