Staff Pick
Hot Milk is about Sofia, a listless young woman who accompanies her needy/ailing mother to a clinic in southern Spain. Sofia, whose training is in anthropology but whose career, so far, has been in a coffee shop, loafs around thinking thoughts and being stung by jellyfish. Sofia is wise in a languid way, and incredibly compelling. This is NOT a whiny, millennial struggling-to-find-a-place-in-the-world novel. Hot Milk is expertly written. It is poetic and dreamy and captivating. I was sad when it ended. Recommended By Britt A., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, Hot Milk moves "gracefully among pathos, danger, and humor" (The New York Times).
I have been sleuthing my mother's symptoms for as long as I can remember. If I see myself as an unwilling detective with a desire for justice, is her illness an unsolved crime? If so, who is the villain and who is the victim?
Sofia, a young anthropologist, has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother's unexplainable illness. She is frustrated with Rose and her constant complaints, but utterly relieved to be called to abandon her own disappointing fledgling adult life. She and her mother travel to the searing, arid coast of southern Spain to see a famous consultant--their very last chance--in the hope that he might cure her unpredictable limb paralysis.
But Dr. Gomez has strange methods that seem to have little to do with physical medicine, and as the treatment progresses, Sofia's mother's illness becomes increasingly baffling. Sofia's role as detective — tracking her mother's symptoms in an attempt to find the secret motivation for her pain — deepens as she discovers her own desires in this transient desert community.
Hot Milk is a profound exploration of the sting of sexuality, of unspoken female rage, of myth and modernity, the lure of hypochondria and big pharma, and, above all, the value of experimenting with life; of being curious, bewildered, and vitally alive to the world.
Review
"A singular read... Levy has crafted a great character in Sofia, and witnessing a pivotal moment in her life is a pleasure." Publishers Weekly (Starred and Boxed Review)
Review
"Levy's language is precise. The absurdities of her style seem scattershot at first, but yield a larger pattern: a commentary on debt and personal responsibility, family ties and independence." Washington Post
Review
"Exquisite prose... Hot Milk is perfectly crafted, a dream-narrative so mesmerising that reading it is to be under a spell. Reaching the end is like finding a piece of glass on the beach, shaped into a sphere by the sea, that can be held up and looked into like a glass-eye and kept, in secret, to be looked at again and again." Suzanne Joinson, The Independent
Review
"The novel's eerie atmosphere and sibylline turns of phrase have made Hot Milk the bettor's favorite for this year's Man Booker Prize.... Its moody spell and haunted imagery pull you in." Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
Review
"A powerful novel of the interior life, which Levy creates with a vividness that recalls Virginia Woolf.... Transfixing." Erica Wagner, The Guardian
Review
"Against fertile seaside backdrops, Sofia, seeking a robust, global meaning for femininity and motherhood, becomes increasingly bold herself." The New Yorker
Review
"In Levy's evocative novel, dense with symbolism, a woman struggles against her hypochondriacal mother to achieve her own identity." The New York Times Book Review, "100 Notable Books of 2016"
Review
"Gorgeous.... What makes the book so good is Ms. Levy's great imagination, the poetry of her language, her way of finding the wonder in the everyday, of saying a lot with a little, of moving gracefully among pathos, danger and humor and of providing a character as interesting and surprising as Sofia. It's a pleasure to be inside Sofia's insightful, questioning mind." The New York Times
About the Author
Deborah Levy trained at Dartington College of Arts before becoming a playwright. Her plays include Pax, Heresies, Clam, Call Blue Jane, Shiny Nylon, Honey Baby Middle England, Pushing the Prince into Denmark and Macbeth-False Memories. She has also written some novels and was a Fellow in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1989-1991.