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Holler, Child

By: LaToya Watkins
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Aaron Goodson, JD Jackson, Lisa Renee Pitts, De'Onna Prince, Kacie Rogers
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Publisher's summary

Longlisted for the National Book Award

Winner of the Reading the West Book Award in Fiction

An extraordinary short story collection about community, home, betrayal, and forgiveness—from a writer whose “spellbinding, buoyant”* storytelling will break your heart as it tends to the wounds.

*Texas Monthly

In Holler, Child’s eleven brilliant stories, LaToya Watkins presses at the bruises of guilt, love, and circumstance. Each story introduces us to a character irrevocably shaped by place and reaching toward something—hope, reconciliation, freedom.

In “Cutting Horse,” the appearance of a horse in a man’s suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police. In “Holler, Child,” a mother is forced into an impossible position when her son gets in a kind of trouble she knows too well from the other side. And “Time After” shows us the unshakable bonds of family as a sister journeys to find her estranged brother—the one who saved her many times over.

Throughout Holler, Child, we see love lost and gained, and grief turned to hope. This collection peers deeply into lives of women and men experiencing intimate and magnificent reckonings—exploring how race, power, and inequality map on the individual, and demonstrating the mythic proportions of everyday life.

©2023 LaToya Watkins (P)2023 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

A New York Times Editors’ Choice

One of
Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year

Featured in
San Antionio Current's ''10 Notable 2023 Books From Texas Authors"

One of
The Millions’ Most Anticipated Titles of 2023

One of
The Texas Observer's 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books

Included in
Ebony's "August Required Reading"

One of
Bookish's "30 Summer Books to Have on Your Radar"

Included in Essence's "15 New Books We Can't Wait to Read This Summer"

Included in
Lone Star Literary Life's "August 2023 Texas Books Preview"

Featured in
LitHub's list of "New Books Out Today"

A
Kirkus Most Anticipated Book of the Fall

“The collection asks: Whom can we protect and at what cost? Atmospheric and cinematic, Holler, Child is well worth your time.” The New York Times Book Review

“A poignant collection about the loves, losses, and struggles of a Black community in West Texas . . . Watkins plumbs the depths of our emotions with compassion and nuance, offering a complex understanding of the human condition.” TIME, “The 100 Must-Read Books of the Year”

“Above all, Holler, Child is an engrossing showcase of ordinary people struggling to get by, carefully and compactly drawn… Watkins’s spare, evocative prose turns painful subject matter into thoughtful, transcendent art… an unforgettable collection.” The Washington Post

What listeners say about Holler, Child

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Excellent Debut Collection

Holler, Child riveted me. It helps that I come from a family of Black Texans, so the voices and characters were familiar to me. I feel like I know these people. Watkins nails the Black Texan voice in stories that are poignant and vibrant. I highly recommend her book.

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Great book and readers

Stories of ordinary folk. The underdogs. The underbelly. Well-written. Authentic and heartbreaking. That’s life, isn’t it?

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