Coming
Paradise Pawn by Meg Richardson
“You’ve never read a coming-of-age novel like this before . . . Richardson transforms our ideas of what it means to be a girl in this laugh-out-loud novel about best friendship, growing up, and working-class life.”'—Molly McGhee, author of Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781963108736
- Page Count
- 256
- Language
- English
- Imprint
- Tin House
Meet the Author
Meg Richardson
A dazzling debut novel about best friends, adolescent longing, and the Florida pawn shop that promises to make their dreams come true—if it doesn’t break them apart first.
Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.
With incredible heart and wit, and based on Richardson’s own experience working behind the counter of a pawn shop, Paradise Pawn navigates current-day themes of trust, familial love, female friendship, and class differences, and asks us how far we would go to protect the ones we love most.
Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.
With incredible heart and wit, and based on Richardson’s own experience working behind the counter of a pawn shop, Paradise Pawn navigates current-day themes of trust, familial love, female friendship, and class differences, and asks us how far we would go to protect the ones we love most.
Praise for Paradise Pawn
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“Paradise Pawn introduces us to a world that feels deeply lived in, and Meg Richardson gets every detail just right. In the pawn shop, we are privy to the pendulum of human desperation: what people need and what they're willing to sacrifice. The friendship between Jackie and Kayla perfectly captures the feeling of being caught between: between new friends and old friends that feel like family, between childhood and adulthood, between wanting to be close and wanting to be your own person. Paradise Pawn is a touching ode to the gleeful delusion and quiet heartbreak of growing up.”
Katie Yee, author of Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar -
“A lovely book that captures the rhythms and travails of working-class life. Meg Richardson is a rising new talent.”
Gary Shteyngart, author of Vera, or Faith -
“Brilliant and bighearted, Paradise Pawn transported me back to the electrifying intensity of young friendship. It beautifully captures the feeling of slowly waking up from childhood and emerging into the adult world only to realize it's often not what we thought it would be. A total gem of a debut!”
Charlee Dyroff, author of Loneliness & Company
About the Imprint
Where the literary canon of tomorrow is born. Critically acclaimed titles that challenge, illuminate, and linger. Discover award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from emerging voices you’ll say you found first.
