Open Throat

A Most Anticipated Book in LitHub, Buzzfeed and LGBTQ Reads 2023

'Open Throat is a blinding spotlight beam of a book that I was completely unable and unwilling to put down. I am not convinced Henry Hoke isn’t a mountain lion.' - Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X

'A fierce writing act' - Eileen Myles, author of For Now

'Fantastical, deeply moving; an original adventure' - Brontez Purnell, author of 100 Boyfriends

'Henry Hoke’s narrator is the most credible animal witness to human behavior since Robert Bresson’s Balthazar. Original, fun and completely awakening, Open Throat is a devastating portrait of LA today' - Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick

A queer, dangerously hungry mountain lion roams the drought-devastated Hollywood hills. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting a homeless encampment, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience.

“I have so much language in my brain,” our lion says, “and nowhere to put it.”

As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour spanning the cruel inequalities of LA, while scrambling to avoid the effects of a looming climate crisis. When salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question:

Do they want to eat a person, or become one?

In elegiac, playful prose woven with sensuality, and profound tragedy, Henry Hoke’s Open Throat is a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world, and marks the arrival of a magnetic new voice.