Honey
By Victor Lodato
HarperCollins, April 16, 2024
Meet a woman as tenacious as Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and as irresistible as Andrew Sean Greer’s Arthur Less: Honey Fasinga, the glamorous daughter of a notorious New Jersey mobster, is returning home at last, ready to reckon with her violent past.
As a rebellious teenager, Honey managed to escape her father’s circle of influence and reinvent herself in a world of art and beauty, working for a high-end auction house in Los Angeles. Now, in her twilight years, she decides to return home and unexpectedly falls in love. But in her family, nothing has changed. When her grandnephew Michael bursts into her life in what appears to be a drug-fueled frenzy and her Lexus gets jacked, it’s hard to keep minding her own business. As old cruelties begin to resurface, Honey is no longer sure what she really wants—to forgive or to avenge.
This electrifying literary breakout from PEN USA Award-winning author Victor Lodato is a masterful and deeply moving portrait of love in all its forms, of moral ambiguity, and of inspiring change, a story of female rage that asks the question: What are the limits of compassion in a world of extraordinary violence?
Selected Praise
“Utterly enchanting. A deeply human novel that sings the song of life itself. What a brilliant feat of empathy, style, and transcendent beauty—Lodato has created a true original in Honey.” — Mona Awad, author of Bunny
“Rarely in literature—rarely in our lives—do we encounter someone like Honey Fasinga: fierce, complicated, and out-of-this-world sharp both inside and out. I cried, laughed, and screamed while reading this novel. Weeks after finishing, I am still looking for Honey everywhere. Victor Lodato’s Honey belongs in the halls of other legendary, unforgettable characters. This novel can rightfully be called a masterpiece.” — Javier Zamora, New York Times bestselling author of Solito
“Ilaria ‘Honey’ Fasinga is free-spirited, fashion-conscious, vain, and wounded; through her story of returning to the hometown she fled as a teenager, Lodato deftly explores such themes as the value and cost of artifice, the toxicity of keeping family secrets, and the ways in which even an elegant, independent woman must negotiate the indignities and shrinking options of old age. I’ll not soon forget Lodato’s extraordinary heroine or her captivating life story.” — Wally Lamb, New York Times #1 bestselling author of I'll Take You There
“‘Every woman is free to invent her own apocalypse,’ says Honey Fasinga, the stylish heroine of Victor Lodato’s new novel. Honey knows where the bodies are buried—she helped bury some of them—and at eighty-two she is still figuring out how to defend herself and those she loves against the dangerous bullies of this world. This novel is a wonder of strange kindnesses, unthinkable cruelties, and familial fracture. A sharply funny, searingly wise story about the way that a life lived on its own terms is the ultimate art form. Irrepressible and romantic, empathetic but refreshingly unsentimental, and ultimately unforgettable—like its heroine, Honey is a true original.” — Bonnie Jo Campbell, National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon A River
Praise for Edgar and Lucy
“On every page Lodato's prose sings with a robust, openhearted wit, making Edgar & Lucy a delight to read...Lodato keeps us in his thrall because his grip on the tiller stays reassuringly firm. Not to mention the supporting cast he's gathered, a group so eclectic and beguiling that many of them could carry an entire novel of their own. A riveting and exuberant ride.” — Cynthia D'Aprix-Sweeney, New York Times Book Review, on Edgar and Lucy
“Wonder-filled and magisterial... Lodato’s skill as a poet manifests itself on every page, delighting with such elegant similes and incisive descriptions…His skill as a playwright shines in every piece of dialogue…And his skill as a fiction writer displays itself in his virtuoso command of point of view. The book pushes the boundaries of beauty.” — Chicago Tribune on Edgar and Lucy
“Edgar isn't like other boys and Lucy isn't like other moms, but grandma Florence keeps them tied to reality. And then their lives take a sharp turn...This otherworldly tale will haunt you.” — People on Edgar and Lucy
“A stunningly rendered novel.” — Entertainment Weekly on Edgar and Lucy
“A quirky coming-of-age novel that deepens into something dark and strange without losing its heart or its sense of wonder.” — Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of The Leftovers, on Edgar and Lucy
“This tale gradually exerts a fiendish grip on the reader.” — Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, on Edgar and Lucy
“I tore through the luminous pages of Edgar and Lucy as if possessed…What this book has to say about love and truth will stay with me for a very, very long time.” — Sophie McManus, author of The Unfortunates
“I love this book. Profoundly spiritual and hilariously specific...an unusual and intimate epic that manages to capture the wonder and terror of both child and parenthood with an uncanny clarity.” — Lena Dunham, bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl
“Victor Lodato may be our bard of the sadness, humor, and confusion of loss. He senses the absurdities and elation of mourning and childhood with a capacious precision that brings to mind J.D. Salinger, Lorrie Moore, Karen Russell, even James Joyce. Edgar and Lucy will make you feel things you haven't felt in ages.” — Daniel Torday, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West
About the Author
Victor Lodato is a playwright and the author of the novels Edgar and Lucy and Mathilda Savitch, winner of the PEN USA Award for Fiction. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts, his stories and essays regularly appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, and elsewhere. His novels and plays have been translated into eighteen languages. Born and raised in New Jersey, he now lives in Oregon and Arizona.