> Skip to content
Read an extract
Play sample
  • Published: 16 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9780099589969
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99

The Mars Room





From the author of internationally acclaimed The Flamethrowers – a fearless and heartbreaking novel about love, friendship and incarceration.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A fearless and heartbreaking novel about love, friendship and incarceration, from the author of the internationally acclaimed The Flamethrowers.

‘Astounding… this year’s must-read’ ANNE ENRIGHT

Romy Hall is starting two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Her crime? The killing of her stalker.

Inside awaits a world where women must hustle and fight for the bare essentials. Outside: the San Francisco of her youth. The Mars Room strip club where she was once a dancer. Her seven-year-old son, Jackson.

As Romy forms friendships over liquor brewed in socks and stories shared through sewage pipes her future seems to unfurl in one long, unwavering line – until news from beyond the prison bars forces Romy to try and outrun her destiny.

* Pre-order Rachel Kushner’s new novel, Creation Lake, now *

‘Breathtaking’ VOGUE

‘One of our most outstanding modern writers’ STYLIST

‘Gritty, empathetic, finely rendered’ MARGARET ATWOOD (on Twitter)

  • Published: 16 April 2019
  • ISBN: 9780099589969
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Rachel Kushner

Rachel Kushner is the author of The Mars Room, which was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Her previous novels, Telex from Cuba and The Flamethrowers, were both New York Times bestsellers and finalists for the National Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s and the Paris Review. She lives in Los Angeles.

Also by Rachel Kushner

See all
penguin pop image
penguin pop image