Juno's Swans
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Intense, passionate, desperate―a wonderful, first-person story about a young woman falling seriously in love. The writing is terrific” (Christopher Nicholson, author of Winter).
In 1988, before her senior year of high school, Nina and her best friend spend the summer alone on Cape Cod. Nina has grown up with her ailing grandmother—and she yearns for the chance of a deeper connection. When she enrolls in an acting course, she soon finds romance with Sarah, one of the teaching assistants.
Nina’s own world revolves around Sarah, while the rest of the world moves urgently on. Nina’s high school teacher does not take the end of their relationship well; her best friend feels abandoned; the AIDS epidemic rages; her fellow actors grow and hone their talents. The novel perfectly captures the revelatory feelings that arrive with young adulthood—the startling awareness of oneself outside the bounds of friends and family, and the twin senses of loneliness and liberation that accompany this knowledge. After a summer of love and loss, Nina slowly finds her way back home.
“A breathtakingly tender coming of queer age . . . Wolff stunningly captures that space between unknowing and knowing and the impossibility of bracing oneself for the heartbreak of first love.” —A. M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven
“Wolff’s debut, coming-of-age novel casts a literary spell that recalls the dazzling second book of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, The Story of a New Name (2013).” —Booklist
“Tragic, heartfelt, funny, and charming . . . Captivating and achingly realistic, this is a stunning debut.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wolff's debut novel is a riveting account of first love. In the summer of 1988, between Nina's junior and senior year of high school in Vermont, she jumps at the chance to run away from an illicit relationship with her English teacher, enrolls in an acting course on Cape Cod, and heads to the Cape with her best friend, Titch. On their first weekend there, Nina meets Sarah, a talented but distant teaching assistant in her late 20s, and quickly becomes infatuated with her, leaving Titch in the lurch. With Sarah, future possibilities seem endless, and the realities of Nina's life at home quickly fade: the death of her grandfather, the deteriorating health of her grandmother, the frequent absences of her mother, and her father's abandonment of the family. Yet from the novel's very first sentence, "Sarah says she's in love with someone else," the narrative is centered on heartbreak. As Nina's relationship with Sarah unravels, America unravels in the backdrop as well, with the AIDS epidemic and cultural tensions roiling the nation. Although Nina is keenly aware of the political landscape, Wolff's crushing novel is ultimately a very personal story, vividly rendered in a montage of memories. Considering both romantic and platonic female relationships, Wolff explores the necessity of lived (instead of studied) experience and the lasting importance of loved ones.)
