Mary Gaitskill’s sixth work of fiction is the coming-of-age story of Velvet, an eleven-year-old Dominican girl growing up too fast in New York City, where she battles her fearful, resentful mother for control. Then Velvet is accepted into the Fresh Air Fund program upstate. Her host, Ginger, is a woman with a broken past and a desperate desire to be a mother. As Velvet experiences a new world of race and class, she tries to reconcile her past with her present, feeling as if she has two lives, separated by mere miles. Velvet also tries to understand and train a difficult, neglected horse as she comes to understand herself. The Mare (Pantheon, $26.95) examines how early relationships form the way people love themselves and others, and how, for some, love is confused and shifting—at times warm and welcoming, at times hard and hurtful. As Velvet matures, she becomes what all young adults become: flawed, conflicted, hopeful, and searching for a place to call home.