Stay and Fight

“A contemporary feminist spin on the traditional pioneer novel . . . With Stay and Fight, ffitch aims to update the frontier narrative from a queer feminist perspective, spinning a tale of exodus from a cruel new America where pipelines and pollution pox the countryside . . . Stay and Fight succeeds in mapping the obscure psychological and emotional territory that defines a life caught between commitment and ambivalence, between rebellion and resignation.”—Wes Enzinna, The New York Times

“Delightfully raucous . . . ffitch’s superb comic novel evolves . . . touchingly depicting the tangled and tenacious family bonds that develop in wild places.”—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

"The three-women trope gets a deliciously spirited spin in Madeline Ffitch’s debut novel Stay and Fight . . . The narrative plays out like Winter’s Bone with a dash of screwball as the self-described 'wolf pack' attempts to live off the land, and the mothers work to raise a boy without the interference of the community, however well-intended . . . This book is packed with quick banter and unforgettable, deeply complicated characters, including a soft-hearted tree-trimmer named Rudy and many a raccoon, drake, and black snake. Rare is the book that’s so rooted in a particular place and so light on its feet."—Lauren Mechling, Vanity Fair

"Like Bastard Out of Carolina, ffitch's electrifying debut novel is a paean to independence and a protest against the materialism of our age."—O: The Oprah Magazine

"A thought-provoking examination of the independence and autonomy of the family unit . . . [Madeline ffitch] infuses the pages with a fierce and complex love of place. Stay and Fight is a dark warning about the environmental impact of fracking and pipelines, as well as an anthem to the families that we create."—Kelly Roark, New City Lit

"A motley, makeshift family . . . must figure out how to preserve the things they love . . . and determine what's worth fighting against and for."—Kristin Iversen, Nylon

“ffitch flex[es] some finely honed talent with fictional conflict and plot, and as the prose hops perspective from the four central characters, including the wistfully complex Perley, we're engrossed in what’s next to a point of blind faith and hope.”—Matthew Bedard, FLAUNT

"Madeline ffitch's powerful debut beautifully illustrates how the bonds forged during hardship can become the rope that saves you."—BookPage

“Madeline ffitch’s debut offering brilliantly tackles tensions among three women from diverse backgrounds and their son, struggling for freedom, self-sufficiency, and coexistence with nature, whose habitat they share in the very backwater of southeast Ohio. These endearing but sometimes quirky characters are portrayed with so much brutal tenderness, humor, honesty, and wisdom. Complex emotions and an intersectional worldview expressed in sparse prose that echoes the lyricism of the Appalachian hills.”—Zakes Mda, author of Ways of Dying

“Madeline ffitch is unafraid of a good fight. Her first novel is a rousing celebration of conflict, in particular the conflict that comes with being a family: unspoken tensions, philosophical disagreements, painful words, messy brawls. Stay and Fight makes the powerful argument that fighting within a family is necessary, formative; it’s the practice that prepares us to fight for our families when the time comes. Hers is the fiercest, wisest book about parenting that I’ve read in a very long time.”—Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Ms. Hempel Chronicles

“If Carolyn Chute and Larry Brown and Carson McCullers had a love child, it might be Madeline ffitch’s brutal and brilliant debut novel, Stay and Fight. What a wise, funny, and shining story, born into the world just in time to teach us about friendship, hardship, self-reliance, and black rat snakes.”—Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Once Upon a River

“Madeline ffitch is one of the few real writers on the planet. And Stay and Fight is a real novel. ffitch has the real, funny, not funny, gorgeous, breathing world in her hands. She is giving it to you to hold for a while.”—Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine and Treat Us Like Dogs and We Will Become Wolves

“Mythic and particular, domestic and political, modest and ambitious, strange and familiar, Stay and Fight is a radical and ferocious success. The book disturbs the legacy of a frontier literature, and it points the way to a fresh conception of the Great American Novel.”—Chris Bachelder, author of The Throwback Special

“In her debut novel, Madeline ffitch renders a loving and lawless portrait of a remarkable Appalachian family and the conventions that bind them with undeniable wit and brilliance. Fans of Joy Williams and Nell Zink will find a familiar, but ffitch brings her own compass to these woods and clears new ground while she’s out there. An enthralling debut.”—Amelia Gray, author of Isadora

"Rendered, through its multiple first-person perspectives, with wit and nuance . . . A cleareyed, largehearted take on the social protest novel."—Kirkus Reviews

"Remarkable and gripping . . . The story is told in the alternating voices of Helen, Karen, Lily, and Perley, and ffitch navigates their personalities beautifully, creating complex, brilliantly realized characters. As the stakes rise, for both the family and the preservation of the region, the novel skewers stereotypes and offers only a messy, real depiction of people who fully embody the imperative of the novel’s title. This is a stellar novel."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)