“Claire Monet’s debut is a haunting portrait of a community slowly coming apart at the seams. Village Folley marks the arrival of a major new voice in literary fiction.”
— The Guardian
Village Folley
When a devastating flood reveals the hidden foundations of a small coastal village, its residents must reckon with decades of carefully guarded lies. At the center of the unraveling is Eleanor Folley, a woman whose ordinary life has been built on extraordinary silence. Claire Monet’s debut novel is a haunting meditation on community, complicity, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
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Published on
Feb 26, 2025
Published by
Penguin Random House
Pages
267
Edition
Second
Praise and reviews
“A masterful exploration of complicity and collective silence. Monet writes about small-town secrets with the grace of a poet and the precision of a surgeon.”
— The Atlantic
“Village Folley is the rare novel that makes you feel the weight of what is left unspoken. Claire Monet is a writer of extraordinary emotional intelligence.”
— Granta
Monet transforms a flooded village into a mirror for the human soul. This is debut fiction at its finest.”
— NPR
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