Swanna in Love: A Novel [Hardcover]

Both a riotous page-turner and a thoughtful examination of girlhood, vulnerability, and sexual power. Whip-smart dialogue and a convincing teenage perspective add heft to this comic novel. Belle breaks hearts with the story of Swannas first love. Stranded in Vermont with a neglectful mother and her boyfriend, Swanna, a precocious 14-year-old, pursues a married man whom she sees as her ticket back to New York. With the publication of? Oh, how I loved the whip-smart Swanna Swain. I loved the way she effortlessly lied to people. I love how much she wanted things, good and bad. With Only Jennifer Belle could write a character like the utterly original and hilariously fierce Swanna, who navigates her way out of the benign neglect of an eighties New York City post-divorce childhood with her beloved brother in towa lifetime of growth and changein the course of a summer. Utterly delightful. By turns deeply funny and profoundly moving. The most pitch-perfect portrait of adolescence since This book is incredible . . . Hysterically funny and dark.