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    At the Edge of the Haight
    At the Edge of the Haight
    At the Edge of the Haight
    Audiobook6 hours

    At the Edge of the Haight

    Written by Katherine Seligman

    Narrated by Gabra Zackman

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The 10th Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, Awarded by Barbara Kingsolver

    “What a read this is, right from its startling opening scene. But even more than plot, it’s the richly layered details that drive home a lightning bolt of empathy. To read At the Edge of the Haight is to live inside the everyday terror and longings of a world that most of us manage not to see, even if we walk past it on sidewalks every day. At a time when more Americans than ever find themselves at the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be more timely.”
    —Barbara Kingsolver, author of Unsheltered and The Poisonwood Bible

    Maddy Donaldo, homeless at twenty, lives with her dog and makeshift family in the hidden spaces of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She thinks she knows how to survive and whom to trust until she accidentally witnesses the murder of a young man. Her world is upended as she has to face not only the killer but also the police and then the victim’s parents, who desperately want Maddy to tell them about the life their son led after he left home. And in a desire to save her since they could not save their own son, they are determined to have Maddy reunite with her own lost family.
     
    But what makes a family? Is it the people who raised you if they don’t have the skills to look after you? Is it the foster parents whose generosity only lasts until things become more difficult? Or is it the family that Maddy has met in the park, young people who also have nowhere else to go?
     
    Told with sensitivity and tenderness and set against the backdrop of a radically changing city, At the Edge of the Haight is narrated by a young girl just beginning to understand herself. The result is a powerful debut that, much like previous Bellwether winners The Leavers, by Lisa Ko, or Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, grapples with one of the most urgent issues of our day.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateJan 19, 2021
    ISBN9781649040022
    At the Edge of the Haight
    Author

    Katherine Seligman

    Katherine Seligman is a journalist and author who lives in San Francisco. She has been a writer at the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, a reporter at the San Francisco Examiner, and a correspondent at USA Today. Her work has appeared in Redbook, Life, Money, California Magazine, the anthology Fresh Takes, and elsewhere.

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    Reviews for At the Edge of the Haight

    3.5/5

    36 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5

      Nov 3, 2021

      This novel begins when a young homeless woman finds a dying man in the bushes of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Before she realizes what's going on, she also sees the face of the man who stabbed him. But this novel is not primarily about that, but about the people who sleep in the park when the weather's good and in a shelter when it isn't. Maddy becomes homeless once she ages out of the foster care system and her friends, a small group that sticks together for safety and support, come from a variety of backgrounds. Seligman explores what led Maddy to prefer life on the streets and touches on the issues of her friends and in this she is both humane and clear-eyed. These characters are real people, often with serious problems and she also shows how help can be both well-meaning and badly aimed.

      The situation created in the beginning of the novel is more of a distraction and I never bought into Maddy's motivations for some of her actions, but it also served to show the impact on a family when one of its members choses to leave and live without a fixed address. I appreciated this novel more than I enjoyed it, although it never felt preachy and the way it illuminated the daily fabric of living homeless was something not often found.
    • 2/5

      May 2, 2021

      Perhaps it’s just because I finished an amazing book prior to this one, but this was just an lukewarm read for me. I wanted to like this one, and tried so hard to, but it never happened. I never fully connected to Maddy or any of the other characters, and the plot and dialogue was quite clunky throughout. Often Maddy would be talking to someone and I found it difficult following her conversation.
      The book felt overall like it didn’t know what it wanted to be either, a murder mystery or a portrait of a young girl on the streets. Perhaps some books can pull off both, but this one failed in its execution. Characters often disappeared and then reappeared just as quickly as they disappeared, with everyone acting like nothing had happened.
      It’s apparent that the author was trying to say something about homeless youth, but what that was I never felt was made clear.
    • 3/5

      Jan 19, 2021

      While I enjoyed this book about a 20-year-old homeless girl living in Golden Gate Park, I was left incomplete after reading it. Is it about a girl who witnessed a murder or about homelessness? Are all homeless people as intelligent and put together as Maddy and her friends? Even with the challenges of their childhood why is homelessness their choice? The father of the murdered boy does not seem realistic nor does the support he offers Maddy. The story is at its best when talking about how the homeless survive day to day. That being said, I think this book would inspire a lot of talk as a book club choice and would make an interesting introduction to a discussion with people who work with the homeless. Maybe I’d get some of my questions answered.
    • 5/5

      Jan 19, 2021

      One of the many consequences of this pandemic is that is has brought to the forefront hidden problems like hunger and homelessness. People who were living on the edge found themselves for the first time visiting food pantries to feed their families, and turning to charitable agencies to help them pay rent.

      Katherine Seligman's novel, At the Edge of the Haight, shines a light on the problem of homeless young people in San Francisco. As we meet Mad, she is chasing her dog Root who has run off into the underbrush of the park where she and her friends spend most of their day.

      Root and Mad stumble upon a young man in the throes of death, and a man standing over him who threatens Mad. Mad runs, fearful for her life. Mad's father left her when she was just a child, and her mother suffered a psychotic break a few years later. She went to live with relatives in a foster care situation, and left as soon as she could.

      She ran to San Francisco and found other young people like her- running away from bad situations at home, many who aged out the foster care system with no support or place to go. Mad and her friends sometimes spend the nights in shelter, where they have to be in by 8pm and out by 8am. She goes to the public library, or hangs out in the park during the day.

      In addition to the everyday stresses of homelessness- where to get food and money, clean clothes, avoiding the police- Mad now has to avoid the man who killed the young man. The young man's father, Dave, comes around looking for answers to what happened to his son. Dave and his wife want to help Mad out, but they make Mad uncomfortable.

      We learn so much about life on the streets in this powerful novel. The scene where Mad and her friend Ash get soaked waiting out a rainstorm in a doorway overnight rather than spend the night in a dangerous shelter is so vivid you can feel the shivering rain on your own skin as you read it.

      There are people who are kind to these kids- a librarian who gives Mad paper, envelopes and stamps to write letters, store keepers who let them hang out, people who work in the shelters who try to help them get assistance. There are also people who are not kind, like the gang of thugs who regularly take Mad and her friends' food and money as a toll payment. The people (some with their young children) who want to take photos with the "hippies" made me cringe, as if these young people are tourist attractions.

      One thing that caught my attention was something that Mad's mother said- "You can't judge people because you just never know why they do what they do." That line resonated for me.

      At the Edge of the Haight won the 2019 Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, a prize initiated by author Barbara Kingsolver, one of my favorite authors. Good fiction makes people more empathetic, and At the Edge of the Haight made me look at homeless people in a more compassionate light. We can all use a little more compassion these days. I highly recommend At the Edge of the Haight, it's remarkable and enlightening.
    • 4/5

      Jan 18, 2021

      Maddy has been living on the streets of San Francisco for quite a while. She is comfortable and has her own friends which she considers family. She witnesses a murder of a young homeless boy and now suddenly, the life she knows may be taken away.

      Maddy is such a strong character and I immediately was drawn into her world. She is a quiet young lady and she is very intelligent. She reads a situation and knows just how to get out of it. Plus, she has a wonderful dog named Root.

      This is a very unique and vivid read. I expected this story to be more about the murder but instead I read about another side of San Francisco. I love anything set in this wonderful city. But, I learned a great deal about how the other half lives.

      Need something different…this is it! Grab your copy today!

      I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
    • 4/5

      Dec 21, 2020

      I felt that way all the time. Something was coming for me and would never stop.~ from At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman

      Katherine Seligman's New Adult novel At the Edge of the Haight will shake up what you believed about young adults living on the street. By creating very real characters and following their daily lives, the author creates empathy and compassion.

      Maddy lives with a makeshift family on the streets and parks of San Francisco. With an absent father and a mentally ill mother, she left her foster parents home when she turned eighteen.

      Maddy has adopted a stray dog, her companion and protector. One day he leads her to the body of another street person, a young man. Nearby she notices a man, and assumes he murdered the boy.

      Why was I acting like I was going to save everyone?~from At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman

      Maddy does what she can to help find the truth of the boy's death. His parents hope Maddy can help them understand their son and his life, and hope to help Maddy. But they are too isolated in their privileged life to understand Maddy's needs. She remains closed down, unable to trust.

      This is a character-driven read; the story has complications but the emotional tension of the crisis Maddy faces is internal, discovering a voice through photography, and reacting to an event that motivates her to risk change.

      There is threat and violence and sex, but appropriate for young adult readers.

      The novel has the feel of a journalistic representation of the hard, lonely, alienated life on the street, the endless rounds of finding shelter and your next meal.

      I received a free ebook from the publisher. My review is fair and unbiased.