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Elizabeth McCracken is the author of five books. She has received grants and fellow-ships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and she was chosen as one of Granta's 20 Best American Writers Under 40. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fic-tion at the University of Texas at Austin.
One of the most unlikely and irresistible love stories of the decade, McCracken's first novel is a delight from beginning to end. It is the story of an over-aged virgin, 28-year-old narrator Peggy Cort, and her chaste love for an over-sized boy, 11-year-old James Carlson Sweatt. The two are misfits, the boy by virtue of his physical abnormality, the woman because a lonely childhood has left her unable to accept the affection of others. This seemingly implausible love story is rendered convincing and poignant by an eerily talented young novelist. Her prose is beautifully judged and confident, bringing to life the two strange outcasts and the minor but memorable characters - particularly James's beautiful but equally lonely mother. Funny and sad in equal measure this is a promising debut from a talent to watch. A paperback original. (Kirkus UK)
