Joanna Birch can hear every living thing. But who is listening to her?
Twelve-year-old Joanna just moved to Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood, where the kids torment her, her mother is a stranger in the next room, and her father is slipping away in a coma. When a squirrel named Kawi speaks to her, she discovers a hidden world and a gift that changes everything. This magical coming-of-age story finds wonder in a season of loss.
"After catastrophe tears her family apart, a young girl retreats into a private ritual: listening to animals and speaking back to them. Inwood Hill is a coming-of-age story about loss and solitude, and an en-chanted tale about finding connection in the secret voices of nature. Written in prose of devastating beauty, it is a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a new voice."
—Kiki Liu, author of Girl in an Odd City
"As a naturalist, I highly recommend Inwood Hill. Although I usually read journals, essays, and poetry, I found this novel deeply engaging and broadly appealing. Its vivid portrayals of natural processes, ac-curate seasonal detail, and strong sense of solace in nature and place stood out most. I especially valued the clear explanation of transpira-tion and translocation in trees, the reference to Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds, the detailed plant lists that ground the setting, and the animal guides that evoke an instinctual wisdom."
—Katie Townsend, essayist and guest columnist for multiple pub-lications in Illinois, including the “No Child Left Inside” series
“Kelley instills magic into the unavoidable events in our lives; from the playful imagination we cling to amidst the everyday of grief, to be-lieving the universe will open up for us if we wish it enough. Inwood Hill is a highly imaginative debut novel which explores the lingering impact of our parents before and after they’re gone, while finding so-lace in the childhood superpowers one can create when left so alone.”
—Matthew Paul Olmos, Playwright, "That Drive Thru Monterey"
M.M. KELLEY is a language, literature, dance, and travel enthusiast living in New York City. Kelley’s work has appeared in MASKS and The Razor, was selected as finalist in the Bellingham Review 2021 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Inwood Hill is her first novel.
FORTHCOMING JANUARY 19, 2027. Softcover, 354 pages. ISBN: 978-1-962931-82-3, LCCN 2026913875.
Joanna Birch can hear every living thing. But who is listening to her?
Twelve-year-old Joanna just moved to Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood, where the kids torment her, her mother is a stranger in the next room, and her father is slipping away in a coma. When a squirrel named Kawi speaks to her, she discovers a hidden world and a gift that changes everything. This magical coming-of-age story finds wonder in a season of loss.
"After catastrophe tears her family apart, a young girl retreats into a private ritual: listening to animals and speaking back to them. Inwood Hill is a coming-of-age story about loss and solitude, and an en-chanted tale about finding connection in the secret voices of nature. Written in prose of devastating beauty, it is a remarkable debut that announces the arrival of a new voice."
—Kiki Liu, author of Girl in an Odd City
"As a naturalist, I highly recommend Inwood Hill. Although I usually read journals, essays, and poetry, I found this novel deeply engaging and broadly appealing. Its vivid portrayals of natural processes, ac-curate seasonal detail, and strong sense of solace in nature and place stood out most. I especially valued the clear explanation of transpira-tion and translocation in trees, the reference to Sibley’s Field Guide to Birds, the detailed plant lists that ground the setting, and the animal guides that evoke an instinctual wisdom."
—Katie Townsend, essayist and guest columnist for multiple pub-lications in Illinois, including the “No Child Left Inside” series
“Kelley instills magic into the unavoidable events in our lives; from the playful imagination we cling to amidst the everyday of grief, to be-lieving the universe will open up for us if we wish it enough. Inwood Hill is a highly imaginative debut novel which explores the lingering impact of our parents before and after they’re gone, while finding so-lace in the childhood superpowers one can create when left so alone.”
—Matthew Paul Olmos, Playwright, "That Drive Thru Monterey"
M.M. KELLEY is a language, literature, dance, and travel enthusiast living in New York City. Kelley’s work has appeared in MASKS and The Razor, was selected as finalist in the Bellingham Review 2021 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Inwood Hill is her first novel.
FORTHCOMING JANUARY 19, 2027. Softcover, 354 pages. ISBN: 978-1-962931-82-3, LCCN 2026913875.
