Molly Dektar’s second novel, The Absolutes, was published by Mariner on July 11, 2023.

A scorching, suspenseful, unflinchingly honest novel about a young woman’s affair with an Italian aristocrat that leaves her spiraling in the face of love, danger, and obsession. Sign up for updates.

"A gorgeous portrait of love, desire, treachery, and intellect. Dektar’s language is sensual and rich with texture, especially in details of the snowy Turin mountainside and the humming streets of New York. Like an alchemist, Dektar balances ethereal moments of intimacy with very pedestrian images of daily life. Readers will be left thinking about this mysterious, dazzling love story long after closing the back cover."

— Booklist

“The deep, messy complexities of desire are on full view in The Absolutes....The Absolutes asks you to consider what matters more: the moment the stone is dropped into the pool or the ripples that spread across the surface long after the stone has sunk out of sight. Either answer could be right." — Washington Post

"Molly Dektar can write like hell. [The Absolutes] is simply ravishing." — Melissa Febos

"Read this. Right now." — Brandon Taylor

Molly Dektar’s first novel, The Ash Family, was published by Simon and Schuster on April 9th, 2019.

When a young woman leaves her family—and the civilized world—to join an off-the-grid community headed by an enigmatic leader, she discovers that belonging comes with a deadly cost, in this lush and searing debut novel.

“[A] stunning début...Dektar has a gift for describing the wonders of the natural world, and sensitively inhabits a young cultist’s fragile state.” — NEW YORKER

"[A] lyrical debut...Dektar’s deft construction of the Ash Family’s world and their environmentalist values brings a meaningful new story to the canon of cult narratives. Perfect for fans of Philip Roth's American Pastoral (1997) and the film Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene." — BOOKLIST (Starred Review)

“In her excellent debut, Dektar probes life in a cult with a masterful hand, excavating the troubled mind of a young woman who joins what she thinks is a modern-day commune…Dektar's eloquent, often poetic prose draws readers into this disturbing, powerful novel.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY