Exhilarating...Janet Fitch has created a dark, crooked beauty that fulfills all the promise of White Oleander and confirms that she too is an artist of the very highest order.

JOSIE TYRELL,art model, teen runaway, and denizen of LA's rock scene, finds a chance at real love with Michael Faraday. A Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist, Michael introduces her to his spiritual quest for beauty and to a world of sophistication she had never dreamed existed. But the day she is called to identify her lover's dead body, Josie's bright dreams all turn to black.

Struggling to understand Michael's death, Josie finds herself both repelled by and attracted to his formidable mother, Meredith, who holds Josie responsible for her son's torment. With the luxurious prose and fever-pitch intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch has written a powerful new story of first love, loss, and a young woman's search for truth.