Dear Thorns by Olsson, Karen
Dear Thorns by Olsson, Karen

Dear Thorns

"A deft, persuasive depiction of an appealing mind in midlife."--Kirkus Reviews For fans of Dana Spiotta's Wayward...
$32.40 USD
$32.40 USD
Please hurry! Only 172 left in stock
Author: Karen Olsson
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $32.40
Dear Thorns by Olsson, Karen

Dear Thorns

$32.40
Dear Thorns by Olsson, Karen

Dear Thorns

$32.40
Author: Karen Olsson
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Description
"A deft, persuasive depiction of an appealing mind in midlife."--Kirkus Reviews

For fans of Dana Spiotta's Wayward and Katie Kitamura's Intimacies we follow Lora, a wildlife refuge worker in South Texas who gets tangled up in a romantic relationship with a much younger male intern.

Lora has worked at the wildlife refuge in South Texas for seven years, trapping and studying the elusive Texas ocelot. Interns come and go, but when Ben arrives, something is awakened in Lora that has long been dormant.

As Lora and Ben track the beautiful, almost mystical animal, tensions arise on the refuge. Lora's boss strategizes about how to turn part of the refuge into a hunting destination; an eccentric artist and rancher pitches an unconventional scheme to help the ocelots; and Lora and Ben make a series of impulsive, inappropriate choices. Along the way, the reader learns about Lora's professional and romantic history--the story of a woman dedicated to her career--and is immersed in the world of the ranchlands just above the Texas-Mexico border, home to a distinct mix of species: animal, plant, and human.

With sharp prose and subtle humor, critically-acclaimed writer Karen Olsson mines the gulf between youth and middle age and reckons with the ecological disaster of species loss. Her novel illuminates how the things we do to wild animals--isolating them, reducing their habitats, disconnecting them from other groups--are all things we seem to do to ourselves. Brainy, elegant, and deeply engrossing, Dear Thorns is a portrait of a woman's idealism in a compromised world.

Author: Karen Olsson
Publisher: Astra House
Published: 11/03/2026
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781662603518


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/14/2026
Kirkus Reviews 09/15/2026
Booklist 10/01/2026

About the Author
Karen Olsson is the author of the novels Waterloo, which was a runner-up for the 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction, and All the Houses. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Bookforum, and Texas Monthly, among other publications, and she is also a former editor of The Texas Observer. She graduated from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics and lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.
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