Girl Without Skin

Girl Without Skin covers one momentous year, from autumn of 1965 to autumn 1966, in Michigan's lower peninsula on Island Lake and the nearby town of Brighton. Giving voice to the residents around the lake, many of them young people, it tells the stories of Howard, Vincent, and Frieda. From an angry fourteen-year old growing up in a large single-parent family to a lonely eleven-year old from a broken home to a girl desperate to grow up. The loss of innocence, casual cruelty and political milieu, including the Viet Nam war press in on ordinary lives and the repercussions from the events that unfold will go on for years. From a drowning to the disappearance of a young girl, the characters reach out from the narrative, wanting to understand and be understood.

Finely observed and written in deft, economic prose that gives voice to place as much as to vibrant authentic characters and community, Girl Without Skin is a poignant, sometimes unsettling debut novel from an accomplished new voice.