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The Llano County Mermaid Club
A Novel
Published by UNM Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
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Table of Contents
About the Book
Winner of the 2026 WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction, this is a story of childhood friendships, an adult affair, and the lost innocence of a group of young girls longing for the sea. Scandal, tragedy, and later, darker discoveries make for an enthralling read.
Growing up in the desert town of Sandhill, New Mexico, Marigold Hubbard and her friends wanted only one thing: to see the ocean. The community pool and the nearby Santa Rosa Blue Hole are the closest they can get, and they dream of mermaids while swimming these rare waters. When Marigold learns of the affair between her father and the mother of her best friend, Melody Calloway, the betrayal tears the girls apart. Unmoored from both friends and family, Melody meets a tragic and mysterious end on the shores of the Blue Hole, leaving Marigold no chance to ever reconcile the friendship.
Forty years later, Marigold returns to Sandhill to care for her elderly father, but an envelope of old letters and a cryptic message in an abandoned church leads her on a quest to find answers about what really happened to Melody. Threading between past and present, Marigold must piece together the tragic chain of events that led to Melody’s death, pursuing questions that may have no easy answers.
Growing up in the desert town of Sandhill, New Mexico, Marigold Hubbard and her friends wanted only one thing: to see the ocean. The community pool and the nearby Santa Rosa Blue Hole are the closest they can get, and they dream of mermaids while swimming these rare waters. When Marigold learns of the affair between her father and the mother of her best friend, Melody Calloway, the betrayal tears the girls apart. Unmoored from both friends and family, Melody meets a tragic and mysterious end on the shores of the Blue Hole, leaving Marigold no chance to ever reconcile the friendship.
Forty years later, Marigold returns to Sandhill to care for her elderly father, but an envelope of old letters and a cryptic message in an abandoned church leads her on a quest to find answers about what really happened to Melody. Threading between past and present, Marigold must piece together the tragic chain of events that led to Melody’s death, pursuing questions that may have no easy answers.
Product Details
- Publisher: UNM Press (October 21, 2025)
- Length: 232 pages
- ISBN13: 9780826368263
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Raves and Reviews
"Kathleen M. Rodgers's new novel beautifully captures the feeling of growing up landlocked and dreaming of the sea... It’s a nostalgic tale of friendship, loss, and the power of coming home."
– Candolin Cook, New Mexico Magazine
"…a compelling story of women tested to extremes and anchored by friendship in a landscape both geographically and emotionally unforgiving... Every element of this story holds enchantment."
– Terri Barnes, Stars and Stripes
"Small-town dreamers populate Kathleen M. Rodgers’ welcoming new novel... The characters, living or dead, present or past, feel so authentic."
– Albuquerque Journal
"This is exactly the sort of fiction that makes it impossible for me to stop reading!"
– Long and Short Reviews
“Kathleen M. Rodgers has outdone herself with her newest, most literary novel, The Llano County Mermaid Club. She brings all the mysticism of New Mexico to bear in her story about heartbreak and healing, about how novels can give us the hope to carry on and the empathy to forgive the ones we love most.”
– Kathryn Brown Ramsperger, author of A Thousand Flying Things
“Shifting lyrically between the past and the present, this story of betrayal and death shattering the idyllic joy and innocence of childhood dreams allows us to see the value of an adult perspective in making peace with the past and experiencing the healing power of forgiveness.”
– Sue Boggio, coauthor of Hungry Shoes: A Novel
“Kathleen M. Rodgers delivers a poignant portrayal of small-town New Mexico teenagers in the 1960s grappling with a shocking revelation resulting in a tragedy reverberating into present time.”
– Lynn C. Miller, author of The Unmasking: A Novel
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