Mendell Station
J. B. Hwang
(Author)
This title will be released on:
Jul 22, 2025
Description
"A surprising and evocative debut." -Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of PORTRAIT OF A THIEF
A tender debut that follows a woman who, after her best friend's death, loses her faith and quits her job to join the postal service, quickly becoming an 'essential worker' as the city shuts down.
It's January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God-in everything, really-follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring.
While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other's difficult families.
Mendell Station depicts one woman's deliverance through the peculiar rhythms of work, and the beauty found in small details and gestures, those quotidian labors of love.
Product Details
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publish Date | July 22, 2025 |
| Pages | 208 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Hardback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781639736188 |
| Dimensions | 8.6 X 5.9 X 0.8 inches | 0.7 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
“Mendell Station is remarkably assured. Hwang doesn't put a word wrong. I look forward to reading what she conjures next.” —Brian Tanguay, The California Review of Books
“. . . a tender exploration of grief firmly seated in a gritty and realistic portrayal of working-class life, centered on the power and importance of female friendship.” —Krista Mar, Broad Street Review
“Gentle and meticulously observant, the novel pays tribute to the ways in which thoroughly mundane experiences can serve as a form of grace. A quietly hopeful depiction of the bumpy process of recovery from loss.” —Kirkus
“Striking and understated . . . Hwang delivers glimmering insights into the nature of grief. This leaves a mark.” —Publishers Weekly
“Hwang, who delivered mail during the pandemic, offers a true-to-life look at the haze of grief, the uncertainty and confusion of early 2020, and the inner workings of the postal service.” —Booklist
“A surprising and evocative debut, Mendell Station is both a glimpse into a singular moment in time and a deeply moving meditation on grief, isolation, and belonging.” —Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of PORTRAIT OF A THIEF
“Tender, tender, tender. A raw slice of life that will leave you weeping. A magnifying glass into the seesaw of female friendships and the grief that comes with it. Hwang has firmly established herself as masterful storyteller.” —Carolyn Huynh, author of THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN and THE FAMILY RECIPE
“With astonishing dynamism and empathy, J. B. Hwang paints a moving flash memory about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and imbues the narrative with the sometimes subtle, sometimes overwhelming grief that accompanies the human experience.” —Jinwoo Chong, author of I LEAVE IT UP TO YOU and FLUX
“Achingly gorgeous and quietly devastating, Mendell Station is a work of genius about the collision of grief and faith and a love letter to community set during the rapture event and purgatory of the pandemic. Rarely have I felt so much while reading a book. It will stay with me for a long time.” —Ling Ling Huang, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of NATURAL BEAUTY
“Like all the best novels, J. B. Hwang's Mendell Station succeeds on many levels: An elegy to a beloved friend, it is also an account of what it feels like to lose one kind of faith (and gain another) and a trenchant and humane portrait of San Francisco as seen from the point of view of its postal workers. An intimate, generous, and funny debut from a writer we can expect to hear more from.” —David Leavitt, author of SHELTER IN PLACE
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