Overview

Unable to afford rent, Mia—a community college student—lives out of her car, cleaning houses of the well-to-do in the LA area to meet her shoestring budget. Then Covid hits, and everything changes. For people living in houses and apartments, with stay-at-home jobs, the pandemic was inconvenient. For Mia—a student and housekeeper whose budget is so tight she lives in her car—the pandemic destroys the very source of her paltry income. Fortunately, gutsy and funny Mia is a determined survivor. After weeks of cutting her limited spending even further, missing meals along the way, her wealthy employers become desperate for her services again. This time, she’s determined not to let them take advantage of her as they have in the past. Her newfound confidence gives her new hope as she works to escape the shackles of poverty on her own terms. Sally Rooney meets Elizabeth Strout in this brilliant fiction debut.

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9781953103499

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Reviews

"Past praise for Kate GaleFor The Loneliest Girl ""Humble, hopeful, and defiantly human."" —San Diego Tribune ""When I open a new book by Kate Gale I know right away that there will be bravery. There will be a new take on mythology. There will be beautiful, skillful, memorable language that stands up and speaks up. And the pages fortify, they give strength. The Loneliest Girl is a brave, honest, and endlessly compelling book. Bravo."" —Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic: Poems Refining, compressing, and expanding one's writing while in ceaseless movement is almost unimaginable. Ms. Gale deftly succeeds."" —Concho River Review"

"Past praise for Kate GaleFor The Loneliest Girl ""Humble, hopeful, and defiantly human."" —San Diego Tribune ""When I open a new book by Kate Gale I know right away that there will be bravery. There will be a new take on mythology. There will be beautiful, skillful, memorable language that stands up and speaks up. And the pages fortify, they give strength. The Loneliest Girl is a brave, honest, and endlessly compelling book. Bravo."" —Ilya Kaminsky, author, Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic: Poems “Refining, compressing, and expanding one's writing while in ceaseless movement is almost unimaginable. Ms. Gale deftly succeeds."" —Concho River Review"

"“30 Books We Can't Wait to Read” —Write or Die Magazine “Always compelling, alternately biting and funny, tragic and hopeful, Under a Neon Sun offers an unusual view into lives of people who are often unseen and unheard. They, and their world, are the beating heart of this story.” —Mom Egg Review “In her debut novel, Gale examines the uncertainty and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic through the perspective of a young adult desperately trying to piece her life together . . . Her story is one that will resonate with many readers because they have also lived it.” —Booklist “Kudos on this first novel by publisher, poet and activist Kate Gale! Takes us right back to the pandemic years, highlighting the brutal division between privilege and economic necessity as we follow Mia, a college student living in her car and cleaning for the well-to-do, through the early days of the lockdown.” —Janet Fitch, author, Paint It Black “Kate Gale has the kind of range most writers only dream of. Just as her gift as a poet and lyricist makes for sentences that shimmer and pop, her skill as a storyteller makes for tightly constructed, page-turner plots driven by characters filled with longing, beauty, and flaws. Under a Neon Sun is the rare novel that has it all.” —Marya Hornbacher, author, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia  “In the wellspring of creativity, there is sometimes a generosity that mirror’s the poet’s gift. It is the heart inside the heart, and so it is with Kate Gale. She gives out of what she feels was given to her so that we can all sit in the light of a greater gratitude.” —Afaa M. Weaver, author, A Fire in the Hills “Whether she's writing a poem, a lyric essay, or a novel, Dr. Kate Gale's work always brims with brilliance, wit, and compassion. . . . She bleeds and breathes literature, and we're all the better for her blood and breath.” —Douglas Manuel, author, Trouble Funk Past praise for Kate Gale For The Loneliest Girl ""Humble, hopeful, and defiantly human."" —San Diego Tribune ""When I open a new book by Kate Gale I know right away that there will be bravery. There will be a new take on mythology. There will be beautiful, skillful, memorable language that stands up and speaks up. . . Bravo."" —Ilya Kaminsky, author, Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic: Poems “Refining, compressing, and expanding one's writing while in ceaseless movement is almost unimaginable. Ms. Gale deftly succeeds."" —Concho River Review"

Author Information

Kate Gale is the co-founder and managing editor of Red Hen Press, which has been publishing for more than thirty years in Los Angeles. She is also the author of seven books of poetry including The Goldilocks Zone and The Loneliest Girl, as well as several librettos including Rio de Sangre with Don Davis—who wrote the music to the Matrix movies. Kate grew up in an intentional community. From those beginnings, she has put herself through school, ultimately receiving a Ph.D. in English literature from Claremont Graduate University. Since 1989, she has taught writing at universities in Los Angeles every semester, and has also taught publishing at Oxford, Columbia University, Harvard University, and USC. She served as president of PEN USA from 2005–2006. Currently, Kate teaches publishing and poetry at Chapman University and lives in Los Angeles.

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