MARE is Dakota Johnson’s TeaTime Book Club June 2026 Pick!

MARE by Emily Haworth-Booth is the June Pick for Dakota Johnson’s TeaTime Book Club!

For a long time, a woman lives with her husband and their dog. She teaches an online class about children’s books and plods away at a book of her own. Then the dog dies, and a doctor’s visit reveals that she isn’t able to have children, even if she wanted to.

When an opportunity to lease a mare part-time comes her way, it seems like the ideal arrangement and the fulfillment of a childhood wish—perhaps even something to fill the emptiness, diagnosable and otherwise, that she has begun to feel. She has no problem sharing; she shares a garden with the children next door and chores with her husband. The horse will be something to care for, just two days a week, without getting in too deep.

But as she takes up riding lessons, faces mounting medical bills, and walks and brushes and dreams of the horse, her affection starts to become all-consuming. Time spent with the mare casts a light on the rest of her responsibilities and relationships, ultimately forcing her to confront what it means to love a being who does not belong to her. With tender humor and insight, Emily Haworth-Booth’s MARE radiates life and feeling—and introduces an irresistible literary voice.

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“Haworth-Booth’s book is a marvelous exploration of what it means to be a woman, to live in a woman’s body, to contemplate motherhood—and it is equally about the relationships between people and animals, women and girls and horses. Every step of the way, she resists easy answers… A lyrical, exquisitely detailed account of one woman’s inner and outer worlds.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Haworth-Booth’s lyrical debut novel features a woman who has struggled with the very realistic conflict over whether to become a mother, only to find the decision taken out of her hands due to medical complications… The reader becomes immersed in the narrator’s internal world that Haworth-Booth conveys so skillfully. The rhythmic, poetic prose, though quiet and meditative, is simultaneously propulsive, such that the reader will grapple with the woman’s thoughts along with her… Above everything is Haworth-Booth’s dramatization of the deep bond we humans share with other animals, which will leave readers pondering the question of what makes a family.”—Booklist