Fifteen year old Jess is waiting for the world to end. Her evangelical father has packed up the family to drive to California, hoping to save as many souls as possible before the Second Coming. With her long-suffering mother and rebellious (secretly pregnant) sister, Jess hands out tracts at every break in the journey. As Jess's belief frays, her teenage myopia evolves into awareness about her fracturing family. Selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, Mary Miller's radiant debut novel reinvigorates the literary road-trip story with wry vulnerability and savage charm.
The set-up of the story in Mary Miller's debut novel is clever and alluring, and what follows does not disappoint - a sharp, sensuously-written road tale that is both a satirical vision of a grotesque society and a down-to-earth coming-of-age narrative told by an appealing anti-heroine who is determined to stay hopeful against all the apocalyptic odds.
-- The Irish Times
A plangent portrait of American adolescence... [Miller delivers] raw the heartbreaking futility of the Metcalfs' small triumphs, private embarrassments, and poor decisions with such hilarious precision that you become completely involved in their struggles-and, ultimately, in awe of their abiding hope.
-- Elle
[A] terrific first novel... Why worry about labeling a book this good? Just read it.
-- The New York Times Book Review
Author
About Mary Miller
Mary Miller is the author of three previous books, including the story collection Always Happy Hour and the novel The Last Days of California. She is a former James A. Michener Fellow and John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi.
