Monica Brashears at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes MONICA BRASHEARS for a discussion of her debut novel House of Cotton.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About House of Cotton

Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown.

One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia’s luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home. She accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia’s problems fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.

Sharp as a belted knife, this sly social commentary cuts straight to the bone. House of Cotton will keep you mesmerized until the very last page.

Praise for House of Cotton

"Monica Brashears is a stunning new talent. Her debut, House of Cotton, is an incredible work of harsh beauty and a novel you won't forget." ―Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black

"Monica Brashears is an immense talent, and her enchanting, strikingly original prose will astonish you. Magnolia is such a vivid, tender character: whip smart but deeply innocent, traumatized but also joyful and funny. Magnolia’s complex voice is nothing short of miraculous. House of Cotton is a powerful, seductive, and subversive novel." ―Dana Spiotta, author of Eat the Document

"Mystical, carnal, and written in fire. House of Cotton ushers Monica Brashears straight onto American lit’s mainstage, which she should grace for a long time.” ―Jonathan Dee, author of The Privileges