Poor Deer : A Novel

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Margaret’s first memory is of the day she accidentally locked her friend Agnes in an old cooler. When Margaret couldn’t get the lid back open, she ran away in terror, and Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret for her friend’s death. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who listens that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of the tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories that are full of faith and magic—and that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces her past and confesses the truth. And when teenage Margaret strikes out on her own, Poor Deer offers her a sudden opportunity to atone for her sins and sweep the ledger clean at last.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.