A novel wise in the complexities of adolescence and the human heart.
--The Washington Post
Longing to escape the rundown commune outside of Ithaca, New York where
she lives with her organic-farmer mother, assorted half-siblings, and a
cow named Marilyn, the precociously well-read Saskia White, twelve,
imagines herself as the noble contemporary of Odysseus, Marco Polo, and
Horatio Hornblower. But Saskia's elaborate fantasies are soon upstaged
by her real-life, long-lost father, who leads Saskia and her best friend
Jane on a camping trip that turns into an epic adventure of love, sex,
and lies.
Saskia is as unforgettable as her own heroes, a young girl whose story
resonates with a rare and joyous sense of life and discovery.