In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And, she has been taking French night classes downtown. So, when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes "interesting," the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister's attempts to avoid him-and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend-rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. Told with ferocious energy and sly, wicked humor, Milkman establishes Anna Burns as one of the most consequential voices of our day.
"[Milkman] seeth[es] with black humor and adolescent anger at the adult world and its brutal absurdities. . . . For a novel about life under multifarious forms of totalitarian control"
political, gendered, sectarian, communal
"Brutally intelligent. . . . At its core, Milkman is [a] wildly good and true novel of how living in fear limits people."
NPR.org
"Milkman vibrates with the anxieties of our own era, from terrorism to sexual harassment to the blinding divisions that make reconciliation feel impossible. . . . It's as though the intense pressure of this place has compressed the elements of comedy and horror to produce some new alloy."
