On The Rocks: A Novella
Theodora Ziolkowski
Winner of Next Generation Indie Book Awards
In On the Rocks, Eva Marino’s free-spirited mother Leonora is on the cusp of her second marriage and Eva is to serve as the maid of honor. Between binge-watching episodes of Midsomer Murders, attending therapy, and drinking mojitos at the Grumpy Monk Tavern directly after the yoga classes she takes with her mother, Eva attempts to keep her grief at bay.
Eva knows she has to step up for her mother as wedding preparations continue, despite the grief she feels over her best friend’s death and her realizations about the secrets her parents kept from her as well as from each other. For Eva, the convergence between her past and present comes to a head in the weeks leading up to her mother’s wedding. A mother-daughter last hoorah at a New Jersey spa culminates in Eva’s understanding of the truth, the truth she tried to keep from surfacing as well as the discovery of a secret that could be impossible for her to move on from.
“Theodora Ziolkowski’s On the Rocks is wickedly sharp and acidly funny—a tragi-comic voyage into the land of mothers and daughters, grief and therapy, and the shipwreck of heartbreak. This is mordant, memorable work from a writer to watch.”
—Alix ohlin, author of dual Citizens
Theodora Ziolkowski is the author of On the Rocks, winner of a 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Award, and Mother Tongues. Her work has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Writer’s Chronicle, Short Fiction (England), Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing. Recently, she served as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast and Fiction Editor for Big Fiction. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
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