Agnes Lives!

A day-in-the-life debut novel about a fading socialite on the hunt for someone to kill her before her next SoulCycle class.

"A tale of suspense, a statement, a cry for help, and a delicious tour-de-force." --Nell Zink

New York City, 2014. Agnes Maurer seeks a willing murderer and wonders what she should wear. Candidates include: an icy magazine editor with a special cutlery set; an eccentric designer from her past; and Agnes's cruel novelist boyfriend. As she Ubers from Upper East Side shopping to Craigslist gun deals, Agnes' desperation becomes an exhibition, a swan song of millennial sexuality as internalized abuse and consummate style, with the knob righty-tightened all the way.

Newton's prose is disturbingly fun, relentless, shattering. A crafted study of existential despair that culminates in a worthy, intense denouement.

Hallie Elizabeth Newton was born in Mississippi. She received her first screenplay credit for At Any Price, released by Sony Picture Classics. In 2016, she received the Goldwater Fellowship to earn her Master's in Creative Writing from NYU. Her short story "Man Made" won first prize for fiction in Columbia Journal's 2020 Winter Contest. Her work is forthcoming from American Chordata. She lives between New York and the Deep South.