The Weeds

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4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
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Product Details
Price
$27.00  $25.11
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publish Date
Pages
320
Dimensions
5.29 X 7.8 X 1.19 inches | 0.76 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780374605476
BISAC Categories:

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About the Author
Katy Simpson Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the author of the novels The Story of Land and Sea, a Vogue best book of the year; Free Men; and The Everlasting, a New York Times best historical fiction book of the year. She is also the author of We Have Raised All of You: Motherhood in the South, 1750-1835. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Oxford American, Granta, and Literary Hub, among other publications. She received a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in New Orleans.
Reviews

A Most Anticipated Book of the Year at Literary Hub
A Most Anticipated LGBTQ Book of the Season at Electric Literature

"A furious, beautiful book about the quest for knowledge and women's part in that quest, as well as a passionate reminder that the struggle for women's rights is ongoing."
--Susan Larson, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate

"The Weeds is the kind of novel that's like Halley's Comet -- something of its kind appears infrequently, but when it does, it leaves a significant impression."
--Nicole Yurcaba, Southern Review of Books

"Irresistible . . . The dangerous potential inside every desire, every choice, drives the suspense in this engrossing novel."
--Emily Choate, Chapter 16

"Luminous . . . A lyrical meditation on power, need, and love."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Marvelous . . . [The Weeds] shows a real power of storytelling . . . A wonderful book . . . [that's] bound to find a place in your memory whenever you see a clump of rosemary."
--Konstantin Rega, Virginia Living

"Full of wonders and history and secrets . . . Impressive."
--Freya Sachs, Bookpage, starred review

"Garden lovers will delight in this roving, fascinating novel that follows a Mississippi woman who discovers the unexpectedly rich plant world of the Roman Colosseum. Wanderlust: induced!"
--CJ Lotz, Garden & Gun

"Erudite, playful, and filled with fury about gender inequality, [The Weeds] can be recommended to readers of cli-fi and feminist literary fiction."
--Booklist

"[A] centuries-spanning story . . . Katy Simpson Smith muses on the constraints and choices of women trying simply to survive."
--Eliza Smith, Literary Hub

"Ingenious . . . Potent details bring [The Weeds] to vibrant life . . . Readers will enjoy stopping to smell the clematis."
--Publishers Weekly

"A novel that repurposes the old-school botanical survey as a way of sorting through curiosity and desire in their rawest forms, set against the high-romantic backdrop of the Roman Colosseum in plant-strewn, crumbling ruin."
--Sam Bett, Literary Hub

"[A] subtle, intelligent work."
--Library Journal

"Brilliant, poetic, unnerving, wholly original. What else would you expect from Katy Simpson Smith? With The Weeds, she has written another masterpiece."
--Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth

"The Weeds is the story of secrets in plain sight--plants in the cracks of a monument, women's lives rooted in spaces that provide them no sunlight or water--but this novel is anything but quiet or secretive. It is explosive and prismatic. I will be recommending this novel to everyone forever."
--Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

"A beautiful, strange, and compelling novel. I liked it for its playfulness about history, for its embrace of bodies in place, for its sense of doom and weirdness at loose in the world. I kept wanting my friends to read it so we could talk about it."
--Sarah Moss, author of The Fell

"What a terrific novel! Strange, moving, and marvelously alive, The Weeds works--like the eponymous flora that fills its pages--with subtle insistence and exuberant power to unfurl its ingeniously twinned stories of injustice, heartbreak, desire, and hope. I couldn't put it down."
--Laird Hunt, author of Zorrie

"Intricately written, combining lush prose, deep insights, and a wicked sense of humor, The Weeds is an irresistible reading experience. Katy Simpson Smith is a wholly original voice with talent to spare."
--Jami Attenberg, author of I Came All This Way to Meet You