Under a Neon Sun
Subtitle
A Novel
Unable to afford rent, Mia—a community college student—lives out of her car, cleaning houses of the well-to-do in the LA area to meet her shoestring budget. Then Covid hits, and everything changes.
For people living in houses and apartments, with stay-at-home jobs, the pandemic was inconvenient. For Mia—a student and housekeeper whose budget is so tight she lives in her car—the pandemic destroys the very source of her paltry income. Fortunately, gutsy and funny Mia is a determined survivor. After weeks of cutting her limited spending even further, missing meals along the way, her wealthy employers become desperate for her services again. This time, she’s determined not to let them take advantage of her as they have in the past. Her newfound confidence gives her new hope as she works to escape the shackles of poverty on her own terms. Sally Rooney meets Elizabeth Strout in this brilliant fiction debut.
Bio
Kate Gale is an ASU alum, having earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1987.
Praise for this book
In her debut novel, Gale examines the uncertainty and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic through the perspective of a young adult desperately trying to piece her life together . . . Her story is one that will resonate with many readers because they have also lived it.
Booklist
Kate Gale has the kind of range most writers only dream of. Just as her gift as a poet and lyricist makes for sentences that shimmer and pop, her skill as a storyteller makes for tightly constructed, page-turner plots driven by characters filled with longing, beauty, and flaws. 'Under a Neon Sun' is the rare novel that has it all.
Marya Hornbacher Author, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia