I Am Agatha - by Nancy Foley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"A beautiful love story and meditation on grief, memory, art, and the deepest secrets we hold to keep living." --Angie Kim - "Reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith's magnificent Ripley novels...Brilliant and wily...Captivating." --Maureen Corrigan - "Wry, tender, and deeply original." --Christina Baker Kline

For readers of Elizabeth Strout and Virgina Evans, a darkly funny and moving debut novel about the unforgettable Agatha, whose devotion to a widow with dementia (and an inconvenient attachment to her daughter's grave) sparks a radical reckoning with life, loss, and love's aftermath.

Agatha, a bristly painter fleeing her own darkness, decamps to rural New Mexico to live the reclusive life of a small-town curmudgeon. It is there she meets Alice, a mild widow with a deepening case of dementia who keeps steady vigil at her daughter's backyard grave. Despite Agatha's rough edges and fierce aversion to sentimentality, she surprises herself by falling in love, and her well-worn convictions begin to upend.

As Alice's condition worsens, Agatha hatches a plan for them to live together at her remote residence at Mesa Portales. But when Alice's wayward son comes along with different ideas--and Alice suddenly goes missing--Agatha takes matters into her own hands with the help of a faithful thirteen-year-old-neighbor, a pair of shovels, and her trusty pickup, embarking on an unusual mission that calls into question whether some secrets are better kept buried.

Sharp, watchful, at once thrillingly perceptive and hidden from herself, Agatha is as imposing as the vast landscape her rustic adobe home overlooks. Loosely inspired by the life of Agnes Martin, I Am Agatha introduces us to this irascible, indelible character who learns--over a stretch of strange, singular days--new ways to fathom life, death, and her own heart.

Review Quotes

"Move over, Mr. Ripley. I Am Agatha is a delightfully duplicitous debut. . . . If you're one of those readers who prizes likeability above all else in your fictional characters, you may be inclined to give I Am Agatha a pass. But that would be a mistake. This is a strange, fresh story about artistic ambition and personal autonomy willingly abridged for love. . . . Brilliant and wily." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

"Every now and then, a remarkable protagonist comes around, someone so delightfully rendered into existence that you'd want to invite this person over for dinner or for iced tea and marshmallow puff cookies with that thin chocolate shell. Felicidades to debut novelist Nancy Foley for creating just such a character. . . . I Am Agatha is a work of art." --The Chicago Review of Books

"Wry, tender, and deeply original, I Am Agatha is the story of a woman who builds her own house and her own salvation--a fierce meditation on love, art, and freedom for readers of Claire Keegan and Elizabeth Strout." --Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train

"Gloriously uncompromising or simply ornery and enigmatic? Nancy Foley's extraordinary Agatha is both--and, she discovers, something else altogether. This fierce and tender novel brilliantly captures how unexpected devotion can crack open even the most stubbornly guarded heart." --Antoine Wilson, nationally bestselling author of Mouth to Mouth

"To write in the style of a painter is no small feat. When that artist is Agnes Martin, it is something of a miracle. Nancy Foley's exacting and rhythmic prose delivers a marvel of precision and unexpected joy. I Am Agatha masterfully demonstrates the quiet power of lines--drawn, written, and crossed." --Christine Coulson, nationally bestselling author of Metropolitan Stories and One Woman Show

"A fascinating portrait of a woman torn between her single-minded artistic ambition and her yearning for love. In a novel inspired by the life of the artist Agnes Martin, Foley invents a fictional scenario while capturing Martin's emotional essence. . . A rich portrayal emerges on multiple layers: the self-centered, prickly but gifted artist, the woman fighting the realities both of mental illness and aging, the derider of sentiment who desperately wants, and often makes, deep and lasting connections with others." --Kirkus Reviews, starred

"A striking first novel, jumping off from scant details of the life of a true historical figure to follow the author's imagination beyond. Like its protagonist, this story is sure-footed and occasionally, markedly vulnerable. . . . I Am Agatha is an arresting, darkly funny, and heartrending consideration of life, love, and endings." --Shelf Awareness

"Debut novelist Foley crafts a spare and skillful story, giving Agatha a unique narrative voice that lets the sarcastic yet vulnerable narrator reveal herself at her own pace. Readers drawn to deep explorations of character and the complex relationships in Sigrid Nunez's The Friend (2018), Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping (1980), and Elizabeth Strout's novels will find much to appreciate in this remarkable debut that lingers long after the final page is turned." --Booklist, starred

"A searing portrait of an artist who uses her private lens to translate and expand the world. Savor this moving meditation on love, mental illness, and art." --New Mexico Magazine

"Evocative. . . Foley crafts a colorful portrait of a headstrong artist." --Publishers Weekly

"This tale of an artist in New Mexico is itself a wise and gorgeous work of art. Foley makes us see old age afresh, as a time of passion, risk, and sharp, exposing light." --Clare Pollard, Tadeusz Bradecki Prize-winning author of The Modern Fairies

"Bold, startling. . . What Foley achieves through her satisfyingly severe prose is a fully fleshed, convincing portrayal of an artist entirely consumed by their dark solipsism." --Taos News

"Surprising and spellbinding, I Am Agatha is a beautiful love story and meditation on grief, memory, art, and the deepest secrets we hold to keep living. Agatha is a narrator for the ages, telling us her story in a powerful voice--lush, sharp, blunt, and lyrical, all at once. And that extraordinary ending! Once I finished, I had to turn back to the beginning to reread and rethink through the whole story again." --Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls

About the Author

Nancy Foley grew up in New Mexico. She has been a writer in residence at Hedgebrook, and divides her time between New Mexico and Oregon. I Am Agatha is her first novel.