"[The Doloriad] just might be what your rotten little heart
deserves." --J. Robert Lennon, The New York Times Book Review
**
One of Vulture's Best Books of 2022**. Longlisted for the VCU Cabell
First Novelist Award.
**
Macabre, provocative, depraved, and unforgettable, The Doloriad marks
the debut of Missouri Williams, a terrifyingly original new voice**
In the wake of a mysterious environmental cataclysm that has wiped out
the rest of humankind, the Matriarch, her brother, and the family
descended from their incest cling to existence on the edges of a
deserted city. The Matriarch, ruling with fear and force, dreams of
starting humanity over again, though her children are not so certain.
Together the family scavenges supplies and attempts to cultivate the
poisoned earth. For entertainment, they watch old VHS tapes of a TV show
in which a problem-solving medieval saint faces down a sequence of
logical and ethical dilemmas. But one day the Matriarch dreams of
another group of survivors and sends away one of her daughters, the
legless Dolores, as a marriage offering. When Dolores returns the next
day, her reappearance triggers the breakdown of the Matriarch's fragile
order, and the control she wields over their sprawling family begins to
weaken.
Told in extraordinary, intricate prose that moves with a life of its
own, and at times striking with the power of physical force, Missouri
Williams's debut novel is a blazingly original document of depravity and
salvation. Gothic and strange, moving and disquieting, and often
hilarious, The Doloriad stares down, with narrowed eyes, humanity's
unbreakable commitment to life.
