Susanna Kaysen has written the novels Asa, As I Knew Him and Far Afield and the memoirs Girl, Interrupted and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brilliant . . . a novel distinguished for [its] intelligence, psychological insight, and splendid writing. -- The Atlantic Enthralling . . . at times supernaturally beautiful. A gritty, intellectual, emotionally complex and astute account of an outsider succumbing to the hidden charms of a remote and peculiar island community. -- Cleveland Plain Dealer Kaysen softly moves the story forward, chronicling personal change with deft touches of insight and with detail of island life so rich that it seems she had spent a year there herself. -- Chicago Sun-Times Witty, intelligent. . . . An inspired novel about the human condition and the nature of civilization. One of the best novels . . . in some time. -- Boston Magazine