Queen for a Day

"An engrossing and compassionate collection showing motherhood in its most unrelenting form.” — Kirkus (Starred Review)

“Maxine Rosaler’s stories are both hard-edged and comic, laced with despair and hopeful against all expectation. New York City is the setting, a struggle to prosper in the face of bad choices and deeply ingrained perversity is the theme. Constant, however, is a narrative voice that proves irresistible, and a craftsman’s approach to the construction of these contemporary parables.”—C. Michael Curtis,   Fiction Editor, The Atlantic

“I was both moved and impressed by this novel, and the intelligence and sympathy with which the author presents her afflicted characters.” — Alison Lurie, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Foreign Affairs and The Language of Houses

"Maxine Rosaler makes Mimi’s story come alive with humor, hard-won wisdom, and unflinching honesty about what it’s like to mother a child with special needs. Queen for a Day is a closely observed, complex portrait of parenthood, where love and frustration, tenderness and bewilderment, are inextricably intertwined." – Caitlin Horrocks, Fiction Editor, Kenyon Review

These well-told stories speak eloquently to the loneliness and isolation that can be an intrinsic part of raising a child with a disability. With unsentimental candor and edgy humor, Maxine Rosaler describes the surreal situations these mothers of autistic kids encounter, but she also reveals glimpses of the deep love and against all odds dreams these women have for their children. – Marianne Leone, author of JESSE, a Mother’s Story of Grief, Grace and Everyday Bliss.

“Maxine Rosaler's novel in stories is sharply observant and deeply poignant, yet at times so darkly humorous that the reader will laugh out loud. Queen For a Day is unlike anything you've read before, and is absolutely unforgettable.” — Marian Thurm, author of Today is Not Your Day, Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review