The Mars Room: A Novel

"If you loved Rachel Kushner’s The Flame Throwers, you might think you’re going for a similarly wild ride in her latest novel. You’re not – but you are in for another treat. And this journey is also primal: You meet protagonist Romy Hall on a night bus ride to prison. The Mars Room’s pleasures don’t rise up and slap you in the face. Instead, Kushner slowly unspools Romy’s history in rushes of memory, outlined with slow, aching details. This is a story about the underbelly of the underclass in 2003, and Romy’s intelligence and humor slowly seep into your skin in 2018. The Mars Room is beautiful and bleak; it captures this moment in time better than the many political nonfiction books I’ve read this year."