To Stay, To Stay, To Stay

“With rare emotional precision and a fierce, glowing heart, Devon Halliday investigates the stories people tell themselves about love and the combustible, constant anxieties that sustain those stories. To Stay, To Stay, To Stay is funny, unforgettable, and deeply moving, a book about the ways in which we both crave and avoid intimacy, often on the very same day.  This marvelous debut novel wisely asks an urgent, contemporary question: What’s braver? Blowing up your life? Or simply living it, however it unfolds?”
—Dean Bakopoulos, author of Summerlong

“Here we are in Eden, which is, as always, a tangled bramble of trouble, the good kind as well as the worst.  In this enchanting tale of small-town love, artisanal bread, and sketchy real estate, Devon Halliday explores the webs that connect us and the mysterious forces that break those webs apart and toss them aside like yesterday’s stale ciabatta. Everything and everyone in this wonderful novel is rendered with precision, wit, and uncompromising humanity. I rooted for all of them, and you will too!”
—David Haynes, author of Martha’s Daughter

“Devon Halliday has such a mastery of language and storytelling artistry that it’s hard to believe To Stay, To Stay, To Stay is her debut. This novel, a wry and incisive exploration of how people behave (and misbehave) at the critical inflection points in their lives, is a marvel.”
—Marisa Silver, author of At Last

How can I read this novel?

You can pre-order it from Barnes & Noble. More links to come soon!

Can I see the cover?

Not quite yet. The cover will be announced on May 5th. Mark your calendar.

What’s the novel about?

Decision-making. Small towns. What it’s like to work a 9-to-5 while you’re also undergoing serious internal upheaval. All the ways we hide that upheaval. All the ways we accidentally let it show.

Okay, but what’s it about officially?

An ensemble cast collides and crosses paths in their small corner of the Midwest where no one is a stranger: the baker, the realtor, the poet, the gardener, the frustrated artist. In Devon Halliday’s transcendent debut novel, secrets turn contagious, impulses transform into resolutions, and no one is certain whether they will remain in the confines of their Appalachian college town or step out into the unknown. 

Surrounded by hills, buried in green, Eden is a forgotten town full of ordinary lives. But over the course of a humid summer week, seven of these ordinary lives reach their boiling point, as the existential questions of each begin to urgently entwine. Underneath the threat of marital infidelity, financial ruin, and life-changing illness is always the same question: To stay, or to go? If you choose to stay, is it ever a permanent choice? Can you be sure you’ll choose it again tomorrow? A mosaic portrait of love and its close substitutes, the novel suggests, fearfully, that even our best decisions might be fragile, arbitrary, and impermanent.

How can I stay up to date on what’s going on with this novel?

I’ll post news about the novel on my Instagram, and I’ll track the journey to publication on my Substack. (You can also sign up for this mailing list if you just want an email when the novel comes out.) An up-to-date list of my book tour events can be found here.

Can I support the novel in ways that don’t include buying it?

Sure! You can ask your local independent bookstore if they’re going to stock it. You can request a copy at your local library. You can read my published short stories for free, and share them around if you like them. You can add to my follower count on Instagram and Substack. You can contact my publisher for a review copy. You can contact my publicist if you’d like to interview me or host an event. You can come to one of the events on my book tour.

October is so far away!

I know. But if you’re rabid to consume content relating to this novel, there will be quite a lot of it in the next few months! Watch this space for links to interviews, essays, Q&As, and podcast appearances.