“Canty … has a real feeling for the language, and for the emotional void at the center of many people’s lives.”
—San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
“A working-class Holden Caulfield for the ’90s.… [Canty] effortlessly enters the 17-year-old boy, exposing every thought, every idea.… He deftly charts one small life, magnifying the heart’s daily tragedies and triumphs.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Canty’s searing, smart, and beautifully nuanced prose is a pleasure to read from beginning to end.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Unerring and beautifully bleak.… This is first love with all its swift and overwhelming intensity.… Both poignant and honest.”
—Detroit News/Free Press
“Brilliant.… A piercing account of a young couple who reject the script they’ve been given.”
—Elle
“Canty’s spare prose conveys the intensity of adolescence.… [And] evokes the pain and thwarted promise of past love.”
—Washington Post
“Canty writes with a virtuoso sharpness … an enthralling read.”
—The San Francisco Review
“Superb … pitch-perfect.… This is one of those rare novels that treats sex both lyrically and seriously.”
—Time Out