From Monique Truong, winner of the John Dos Passos Prize for
Literature and author of The Sweetest Fruits, a brilliant, virtuosic
novel about a young woman's search for identity and the true meaning of
family
"What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two" are the
prophetic last words that Linda Hammerick's grandmother says to her.
Growing up in small-town North Carolina in the 1970s and '80s, Linda
already knows that she is profoundly different from everyone else,
including the members of her own family. She can "taste" words. In this
and in other ways, her body is a mystery to her. Linda's awkward
girlhood is nonetheless enlivened and emboldened by her dancing
great-uncle Harper, and Kelly, her letter-writing best friend. Linda
makes her way north to college and then to New York City, trying her
best to leave her past behind her like "a pair of shoes that no longer
fit." But when a family tragedy compels her to return home, Linda
uncovers the startling secrets of her past. Monique Truong's acclaimed
novel questions our assumptions about what it means to be a family and
to be a friend, to be foreign and to be familiar, to be connected to and
disconnected from our bodies, our histories, ourselves.
