Green Dot

Madeleine Gray is a writer and critic from Sydney. She has written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the BBC, Electric Literature, Sydney Review of Books, and other publications. In 2019 she was a CA-SRB Emerging Critic, and in 2021 she was a finalist for the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism, a finalist for the Woollahra Digital Literary Non-Fiction Award, and a recipient of a Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund grant. She has an MSt in English from the University of Oxford and is a current doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. Green Dot is her first novel.

An IndieNext Pick for March 2024
Named a Best Book of February 2024 by People Magazine
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Debutiful
Named one of Electric Literature's "42 Queer Books You Need to Read in 2024"

"Gray skillfully blends a rom-com-like breeziness with incisive, nuanced commentary on societal expectations, modern disconnection, responsibility in relationships and selfhood. . . What both Hera and this reader expect to happen in the relationship happens, but this doesn't come as a disappointment. Instead, the novel earns its way toward a satisfactory resolution for Hera, who is, after all, the hero of the story."
-Alexandra Chang, The New York Times Book Review

"A heartfelt debut about the joys and disasters of young adulthood."
-People Magazine

"An exceptionally funny debut . . . Perceptive and hilarious, Hera charges ahead, fully aware of the trope into which she has stumbled. Gray's prose circumvents any hint of banality; the language is too raw, too funny, too simultaneously irreverent and vulnerable."
-Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Conversations with Friends meets Several People Are Typing."
-Michelle Hart, Electric Literature

"Gray's debut is a laugh-out-loud, messy love affair that is a refreshing take on younger women and older married men."
-Debutiful

"Woven with layers, from the love affair at its surface to the enthralling depths of what it means to be alive, Green Dot is rich, meaningful and hilarious. With a messy narrator who you are guaranteed to love, this is the kind of story that sets itself apart."
-Isabelle McConville, B&N Reads

"By the time Hera finds out that Arthur is married, it's already too late-she's enamored. Gray's writing skillfully captures the passion of their early trysts. The sex scenes crackle with energy, and the chemistry between Hera and Arthur is believable and seductive. .