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At the Edge of the Haight

ebook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available
The 10th Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, Awarded by Barbara Kingsolver
“What a read this is, right from its startling opening scene. But even more than plot, it’s the richly layered details that drive home a lightning bolt of empathy. To read At the Edge of the Haight is to live inside the everyday terror and longings of a world that most of us manage not to see, even if we walk past it on sidewalks every day. At a time when more Americans than ever find themselves at the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be more timely.”

Barbara Kingsolver, author of Unsheltered and The Poisonwood Bible
Maddy Donaldo, homeless at twenty, lives with her dog and makeshift family in the hidden spaces of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She thinks she knows how to survive and whom to trust until she accidentally witnesses the murder of a young man. Her world is upended as she has to face not only the killer but also the police and then the victim’s parents, who desperately want Maddy to tell them about the life their son led after he left home. And in a desire to save her since they could not save their own son, they are determined to have Maddy reunite with her own lost family.
 
But what makes a family? Is it the people who raised you if they don’t have the skills to look after you? Is it the foster parents whose generosity only lasts until things become more difficult? Or is it the family that Maddy has met in the park, young people who also have nowhere else to go?
 
Told with sensitivity and tenderness and set against the backdrop of a radically changing city, At the Edge of the Haight is narrated by a young girl just beginning to understand herself. The result is a powerful debut that, much like previous Bellwether winners The Leavers, by Lisa Ko, or Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, grapples with one of the most urgent issues of our day.
 
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    • Kirkus

      October 15, 2020
      A young homeless woman is an unwitting witness to murder in this debut novel set on the streets of San Francisco. All 20-year-old Madlynne Donaldo wants to do is to live an invisible life in the shadows of Golden Gate Park with her friends Ash, Hope, and Fleet. Having run away from Los Angeles, she's trying to figure out what her next steps should be even though life can only be lived a day at a time on the fringes of San Francisco. Unfortunately, as she's out walking her dog, she finds teen Shane Golden, who's taking his last breaths, and also spots his killer. Soon, Shane's parents come looking for answers, and Maddy feels pressured into helping. Maddy's past as the daughter of an absent father and a depressive mother is interesting but blurs away just before it can gather enough steam to be revealing. Seligman constantly shifts the narrative's focus as it chugs forward in fits and starts. Dave Golden, Shane's father, is unconvincing as a grieving dad, and his investment in Maddy feel tacked on and unrealistic. The novel is also unclear about its central thesis: Is this a murder mystery with a look at homelessness, or is it mostly about homelessness with a side of murder? Tangential plot points--Fleet is hospitalized from a drug reaction and Ash suddenly takes off for a Wyoming wilderness camp--further fray the already loosely held storylines. All told, Seligman is to be commended for an insightful portrayal of homelessness. She's at her best when showing just how tenuous life on the streets can be. "Stories were hard to decipher because they were filtered through people," a character says. This might well apply to this heartfelt and unfocused novel. Brave but scattershot storytelling.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 26, 2020
      Journalist Seligman’s earnest if diffuse debut drifts between murder mystery and compassionate sociological study. One day, 20-year-old Maddy Donaldo, who is homeless, follows her dog into a thicketed area of Golden Gate Park, where she finds a dying teenage boy and a menacing man who claims to know where she sleeps. Spooked, she hides out as best she can, but after she tells her friend Ash about the incident, the case leads back to her. The boy is later identifed as Shane Golden, and after his parents come to San Francisco from Upstate New York, they want to talk to Maddy about how he’d been living and how he died. (In one of the novel’s several less-than-credible turns, the Goldens suggest Maddy come live with them in New York.) The killer is eventually identified, but the case founders, and Maddy becomes obsessed with finding out more about Shane. While Seligman has a strong sense of the city and of the challenges faced by the homeless, the murder plot fizzles out as the author goes on fruitless tangents, such as following Ash to a therapeutic wilderness camp after Ash’s parents track him down. Seligman’s portrayal of life as a homeless young person is immersive, but ultimately too sentimental.

    • Booklist

      November 1, 2020
      Maddy Donaldo is a 20-year-old woman who lives in Golden Gate Park with her dog Root and several friends. Her days are built around avoiding citations from the police for camping, finding sources of food, and trying to survive in a city that is rapidly gentrifying. When she discovers the body of a young man who has been stabbed, she finds herself involved in a criminal investigation. The man's parents seek her out to understand what their son's life may have been on the streets of San Francisco. Maddy reflects on the circumstances that led her to become homeless as well as the barriers that keep her and her friends in their encampment. Through careful observation, author Seligman seeks to humanize a community that is often ignored and misunderstood. While readers may wish for deeper dives into supporting characters' backstories, Seligman's straightforward prose gives Maddy a memorable voice. Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, At the Edge of the Haight is a thoughtful look at modern homelessness.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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