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Julianna Baggott has published dozens of short stories and poems and is the author of the prize winning poetry collection, This Country of Mothers and the bestselling novel Girl Talk. She teaches at Florida State University's Creative Writing Program. She lives in Florida with her husband, writer David G.W. Scott, and their three young children. Visit her website at www.juliannabaggott.com
Once, Pixie dreamed of becoming Miss America. In the midst of a confusing, chaotic existence the purity she perceives as conferred by such a title gives everything coherence. But things don't of course go according to plan and pregnancy effectively thwarts her ambitious hopes. Decades pass and Pixie finds life as a wife and mother deeply unfulfilling. Married to a man she tolerates and harbouring a disturbing secret, she muses upon lost opportunities and wonders how she's become so disenchanted. At the same time her 16-year-old son Ezra is trying to make sense of his own muddled life. Infatuated with the confident girl next door and dimly aware of his mother's unhappiness, he narrates the story of a rather peculiar summer when the line between fantasy and reality becomes increasingly blurred. Set in the 1980s, the book unfolds in chapters alternately narrated by mother and son; one reaching back to the past in order to make sense of the present, the other trying to map out his future. In prose that is both sardonic and poignant in tone, Baggott presents an engaging, darkly amusing story of a dysfunctional American family suspended in emotional freefall. The latest in what's currently a popular genre, there's much to recommend this caustic tale. (Kirkus UK)
