Mendell Station

By: J. B. Hwang

Narrated by: Greta Jung

Bloomsbury presents Mendell Station by J.B. Hwang, read by Greta Jung.

"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.©2025 J.B. Hwang (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

Hwang is comfortable switching from a language that is a myopic closeup in its descriptiveness to free-wheeling poetic grandeur on the same page, entering the mind and soul of the woman who is our heroine . . . The effect is mesmerizing, and strangely comforting. (Yuri Kageyama)

Mendell Station is remarkably assured. Hwang doesn’t put a word wrong. I look forward to reading what she conjures next. (Brian Tanguay)

. . . a tender exploration of grief firmly seated in a gritty and realistic portrayal of working-class life, centered on the power and importance of female friendship. (Krista Mar)