Once you start this book, you will not be able to put it down.An Untamed Stateis a novel of hope intermingled with fear, a book about possibilities mixed with horror and despair. It is written at a pace that will match your racing heart, and while you find yourself shocked, amazed, devastated, you also dare to hope for the best, for all involved. Edwidge Danticat, author ofBreath, Eyes, MemoryandThe Dew Breaker

Roxane Gay is a powerful new literary voice whose short stories and essays have already earned her an enthusiastic audience. InAn Untamed State, she delivers an assured debut about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.

Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haitis richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her fathers Port-au-Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself “The Commander,” Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed Stateis a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places.An Untamed Stateestablishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.

From the astonishing first line to the final scene,An Untamed Stateis magical and dangerous. I could not put it down. Pay attention to Roxane Gay; shes here to stay. Tayari Jones, author ofSilver SparrowandLeaving Atlanta

[Haitis] better scribes, among them Edwidge Danticat, Franketienne, Madison Smartt Bell, Lyonel Trouillot, and Marie Vieux Chavet, have produced some of the best literature in the world. . . . Add to their ranks Roxane Gay, a bright and shining star. Kyle Minor, author ofIn the Devils Territory, onAyiti