When Velveteen Vargas, an 11-year-old Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn, comes to stay with a family in upstate New York, what begins as a two-week visit blossoms into something much more significant. Soon Velvet finds herself torn between her host family --- Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic; and Paul, a college professor --- and her own deeply tormented mother. The one constant becomes Velvet’s newly discovered passion for horse riding --- and especially for an abused, unruly mare named Fugly Girl.

A stirring and deeply felt novel, THE MARE is Mary Gaitskill’s most poignant and powerful work yet --- a stunning exploration of a girl and her horse, and of the way we connect with people from all walks of life.