An Untamed State
Mireille Duval Jameson is the American born daughter of a wealthy Haitian construction magnate. While visiting her parents in Port-au-Prince with her husband and infant son, she is taken at gunpoint and held for ransom. Roxane Gay's debut novel follows the thirteen days of her captivity and then the long stretch afterward, when Mireille has to find a way back into her marriage, her family, and her own body. The book moves between the brutal present and Mireille's earlier life in the United States, examining class, race, the inequalities of contemporary Haiti, and the limits of language to describe trauma. Published in 2014, it announced Gay as a major voice in contemporary American fiction.
Also by Roxane Gay
What you might want to know about An Untamed State
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A wealthy Haitian American woman is kidnapped outside her parents' home in Port-au-Prince, and her life is broken open by the days that follow.
It is explicit, including sexual assault, and the book is best approached when you can sit with hard material.
Both. Roughly the first half centers on the captivity and the second on the long process of recovery.
An Untamed State was written by Roxane Gay, published in 2014 by Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated.
An Untamed State is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, An Untamed State takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
An Untamed State is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
