Mendell Station - Hardcover

by J. B. Hwang (Author)

Named a Best Book of July 2025 by The Los Angeles Times and Alta Journal

"A surprising and evocative debut." -Grace D. Li, New York Times bestselling author of PORTRAIT OF A THIEF

A tender debut that follows a woman who, after her best friend's death, loses her faith and quits her job to join the postal service, quickly becoming an 'essential worker' as the city shuts down.

It's January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God-in everything, really-follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring.

While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other's difficult families.

Mendell Station depicts one woman's deliverance through the peculiar rhythms of work, and the beauty found in small details and gestures, those quotidian labors of love.

Author Biography

J.B. Hwang received her MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida, and her short fiction and translation can be found in The Temz Review, The Denver Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, and december magazine. She lived in San Francisco for eight years and worked as a mail carrier during the pandemic. She currently lives in Philadelphia.