Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction
'An instant classic' - THE GUARDIAN
'A bloody masterpiece.' - MELISSA BRODER, author of THE PISCES
'Witty, emotional and gripping, Open Throat is a short but savage thrill ride' - THE INDEPENDENT
'Open Throat is Bret Easton Ellis meets mountain lion in the Hollywood Hills . . . it already has people talking' - THE SUNDAY TIMES
I've never eaten a person but today I might . . .
A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Fascinated by the voices around them, the lion spends their days protecting a nearby homeless encampment, observing hikers complain about their trauma and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their own identity.
When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call 'ellay'. As they confront a carousel of temptations and threats, the lion takes us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: do they want to eat a person, or become one?
'Open Throat is what fiction should be.' - THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'A blinding spotlight beam of a book that I was completely unable and unwilling to put down.' - Catherine Lacey, author of Pew
Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, ELLE, Vanity Fair, Buzzfeed, i-D, Boston Globe, Nylon, Alta, Shondaland, Chicago Review of Books, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Literary Hub. Henry is the author of the memoir Sticker (Bloomsbury Object Lessons), The Book of Endless Sleepovers, the story collection Genevieves, and the novel The Groundhog Forever. His work has appeared in Electric Literature, Triangle House, The Offing, and the Catapult anthology Tiny Crimes. He holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught for five years, and presently teaches at the University of Virginia Young Writers Workshop and lives in Brooklyn. Praise for his work can be found here: https://henryhoke.com/ A mountain lion is on the brink of starvation in the urban landscape of Los Angeles. As it observes the city's perilous beauty and confronts climate change, inequality and love, the animal asks itself: does it want to eat a human, or become one?
