The Hop

Clarke (Thin Girls) tracks a poor New Zealander as she rises to stardom and becomes a symbol of the sex industry in this ambitious and addictive feminist tale. Growing up, Lady Lane (née Kate Burns) has to abide by one simple rule: whenever a “manfriend” of her mother, Merrill shows up at their house, she is to disappear. Still, Kate never judges Merrill because Kate, too, “underst[ands] the power of desire,” leading her to cofound the Sugar Club with her friend, in which they give paid kissing lessons to their classmates. This attempt at making money to help Merrill with expenses evolves and eventually prepares Kate for her gig as a stripper at a club and then for becoming a “bunny” at The Hop, a Moonlite BunnyRanch–inspired legal brothel in Nevada. Here, Kate (as Lady Lane) finds love, sisterhood, and fame as she starts to speak up about the decriminalization of sex work (“then maybe it would be made legal in the world, and then maybe there wouldn’t be so many girls working the streets and getting attacked and raped and murdered”). With a complicated mother-daughter relationship, unconditional friendships, disappointments, and a bold stance on the sex industry, Clarke’s novel consistently stirs the head and the heart. This is a great achievement. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House. (June)