Fiction
ISBN-13: 978-1-997508090
$21.95 CDN / $21.95 US | Trade Paperback
January 2026
Moving on is hard. Even harder when it’s from a make-believe friend—someone, or in this instance, some thing—who’s been your strongest source of support. On what should be one of the happiest days ever, the day her granddaughter is born, Minoo is faced with a terrible choice: make a clean break from her constant companion, a sock puppet named Ecology Paul, or lose her daughter and granddaughter, and maybe all of the people she loves. On an emotional drive home from the hospital, Ecology Paul shares the story of how Minoo got to this point, recalling Minoo’s early teenage pregnancy in Iran, her exile to Canada, her questions about her sexuality, and how a ragtag sock puppet came to her when she desperately needed to be seen. Full of imagination, whimsy and heart, The Unravelling of Ou follows Minoo’s struggles to justify the puppet’s existence and untangle herself from her dependence on it, and reconnect with the people she loves.
Praise for The Unravelling of Ou
“Wildly original and captivating. A phenomenal examination of female shame, sexuality, queerness, motherhood, and intimacy, Hollay Ghadery writes with sensitivity and resonating beauty through an unconventional narrator: a sock puppet, Ecology Paul, who delivers the emotional coming-of-age tale of young Minoo with whimsy and emotional depth. Minoo feels trapped in her body and guilt over its sensual pleasures, as she grapples with a complicated relationship with a traditional Iranian mother. In The Unravelling of Ou, the immigrant Canadian narrative is dismantled, and headstrong mothers and daughters clash with patriarchal structures that want to control their bodies, their vanity, and their desires. Vulnerable, brave, and heartbreaking, this powerful novel asks: how do women function in a world that is not designed to love them back? How do oppressed individuals understand and ultimately save themselves? Ghadery delivers answers in a lyrical and imaginative debut.”—Lindsay Wong, Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies
“With poignant and delicate prose, The Unraveling of Ou draws the reader in through the unique voice of Minoo’s puppet. Ou knows all the secrets for Ou lives inside Minoo, and only Ou can reveal the depth of the brutal choice forced upon Minoo by her mother when she was a little girl. It’s a choice that shapes Minoo’s life in irreversible ways, even after estrangement from its root cause. A daring, not-to-be-missed short novel by the one and only Hollay Ghadery.”—Lily Nilofar-Soltani, author of Zulaikha
“The Unraveling of Ou is wonderfully layered, with a compelling plot and deeply realized characters. Its bracingly effective central conceit—first person narration by the protagonist’s sock puppet—is fresh and satisfying and, ultimately, quite moving.”—K.R. Wilson, author of Call Me Stan and An Idea About My Dead Uncle
“This novel is a delicious titration of acts of betrayal and care. I’ve never read anything like it before and yet it felt familiar in hard-to-reach places of the soul.”—Margo LaPierre, editor and author of Ajar
“Ghadery has written a surprising narrative that interrogates the treatment of young women caught in the crossfire of cultural norms and mental health. Beautifully told with her trademark use of evocative and poetic language, Ghadery has once again challenged readers to ponder identity and what it means to be seen.”—Lucy E.M. Black, author A Quilting of Scars, The Brickworks, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth
