On Sale (US)
March 17, 2026
On Sale (UK)
April 2, 2026
For readers of Elizabeth Strout and Sigrid Nunez, a darkly funny and moving debut novel about the unforgettable Agatha, whose devotion to a widow with dementia (and an inconvenient attachment to her daughter’s grave) sparks a radical reckoning with life, loss, and love’s aftermath.
Agatha, a bristly painter fleeing her own darkness, decamps to rural New Mexico to live the reclusive life of a small-town curmudgeon. It is there she meets Alice, a mild widow with a deepening case of dementia who keeps steady vigil at her daughter’s backyard grave. Despite Agatha’s rough edges and fierce aversion to sentimentality, she surprises herself by falling in love, and her well-worn convictions begin to upend.
As Alice’s condition worsens, Agatha hatches a plan for them to live together at her remote residence at Mesa Portales. But when Alice’s wayward son comes along with different ideas—and Alice suddenly goes missing—Agatha takes matters into her own hands with the help of a faithful thirteen-year-old-neighbor, a pair of shovels, and her trusty pickup, embarking on an unusual mission that calls into question whether some secrets are better kept buried.
Sharp, watchful, at once thrillingly perceptive and hidden from herself, Agatha is as imposing as the vast landscape her rustic adobe home overlooks. Loosely inspired by the life of Agnes Martin, I Am Agatha introduces us to this irascible, indelible character who learns—over a stretch of strange, singular days—new ways to fathom life, death, and her own heart.
Praise & Reviews
“Surprising and spellbinding, I Am Agatha is a beautiful love story and meditation on grief, memory, art, and the deepest secrets we hold to keep living. Agatha is a narrator for the ages, telling us her story in a powerful voice—lush, sharp, blunt, and lyrical, all at once. And that extraordinary ending! Once I finished, I had to turn back to the beginning to reread and rethink through the whole story again.” —Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls
“Wry, tender, and deeply original, I Am Agatha is the story of a woman who builds her own house and her own salvation—a fierce meditation on love, art, and freedom, for readers of Claire Keegan and Elizabeth Strout." —Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Please Don't Lie
“Gloriously uncompromising or simply ornery and enigmatic? Nancy Foley’s extraordinary Agatha is both—and, she discovers, something else altogether. This fierce and tender novel brilliantly captures how unexpected devotion can crack open even the most stubbornly guarded heart.” —Antoine Wilson, nationally bestselling author of Mouth to Mouth
“To write in the style of a painter is no small feat. When that artist is Agnes Martin, it is something of a miracle. Nancy Foley’s exacting and rhythmic prose delivers a marvel of precision and unexpected joy. I Am Agatha masterfully demonstrates the quiet power of lines—drawn, written, and crossed.” —Christine Coulson, nationally bestselling author of Metropolitan Stories and One Woman Show
"This tale of an artist in New Mexico is itself a wise and gorgeous work of art. Foley makes us see old age afresh, as a time of passion, risk, and sharp, exposing light." —Clare Pollard, Tadeusz Bradecki Prize-winning author of The Modern Fairies