Product Description

A gun is pointed at 21-year-old Ellis as she walks through a New York park. Although she escapes unharmed she is left psychologically reeling. Over the next few weeks Ellis keeps everyone at bay: the police, suitors who want to save her, and the university therapist who hints that her sweaters are too tight. But when Ellis accompanies her mother, a nurse, on a mission in the Philippines, she finds the life - even if held up - cannot be held back, and neither, finally, can she.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #479205 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Back Cover
I was captivated from the first page, compelled to keep on reading until I finished it...Vendela Vida's novel is a gift to the reader...an idiosyncratic voice, keenly observed gestures, intelligence and heart, and a story of both large and small moments that reverberate in unpredictable ways. It is the debut of a writer with enormous talents' Amy Tan
A gun is pointed at twenty-one-year-old Ellis as she walks through a New York park. Although she escapes unharmed she is left psychologically reeling. Over the next few weeks Ellis keeps everyone at bay, the police, suitors who want to save her, and the university therapist who hints that her sweaters are too tight. But when Ellis accompanies her mother, a nurse, on a mission in the Philippines, she finds that life - even if held up - cannot be held back, and neither, finally, can she.
'Consistently a pleasure to read' Independent on Sunday

'A sneakily engaging and ultimately astounding first novel...a delight from the first page to the last' Big Issue

'Utterly gripping, a book to be read in one sitting' Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
Vendela Vida has worked at the Paris Review and the New York Review of Books. She is the author of the non-fiction book Girls on the Verge. She and Dave Eggers have recently opened a writing lab for teenagers in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

A marvellous debut novel
Veda's marvellous debut novel is an insightful, subtle exploration of how proximity to violence (violence which could have been a lot worst) can affect someone, and how that is tempered when the person who commits the violence is utterly pathetic, fit only for pity. It's also funny and unpredictable. The sort of first novel that almost every writer would kill to have the talent to produce.