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The Untended

A Novel

By: Mattea Kramer

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Paperback | 6 May 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
312 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 2.29

Paperback

RRP $28.59

$26.99

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For fans of Rachel Kushner and Gillian Flynn, a gritty contemporary debut novel that puts Katniss Everdeen into Euphoria.

Casch Abbey is a waitress, single mom, and recreational boxer who falls in love twice: first with a veteran who secretly grows pot on a rich man’s land in Vermont’s Green Mountains, and then with a painkiller that eases her long-buried pain.

After her foot is crushed under the wheel of a station wagon, Casch loses her waitressing gig and goes broke—and the meds for her foot are her only source of relief. But when the drug is recalled due to outcries of widespread addiction, Casch’s dependence imperils her already tenuous life, as cravings lead her into her small town’s simmering netherworld.

Intimate and exhilarating, The Untended will upend your every assumption about who is a hero and who is worthy of love.

Industry Reviews

“I couldn’t look away. The Untended is a feat of storytelling, with a narrator you can't help rooting for caught up in a system that might grind her up. With all the tension of thriller paired with the deeply felt poetry of lyrical realism, I couldn’t admire this novel more.”—Liz Harmer, author of Strange Loops and The Amateurs

“The Untended is addictive (in the best sense imaginable). It will simply sweep you into the lives (and crises) of Casch Abbey and her children. Don’t miss it!”—Tom Engelhardt, author of Shadow Government

“An intense, crisply told story of resilience in small-town New England, with characters dragged into a mire of emotional and financial hopelessness, with the drug industry about to turn the final screws. Or maybe not? Kramer knows how to draw you in so you feel the journey is your own.”—Jude Berman, author of The Die

“Mattea Kramer’s The Untended is as unflinching and memorable as its protagonist—a single mother and boxer who is strong enough to get off the mat even when life throws her a haymaker.”—Jesse Donaldson, author of The More They Disappear

“A life-affirming story of gumption, resourcefulness, and ferocious attachment.”—Nancy D. Campbell, author of The Narcotic Farm

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