Small Damages
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4.2 • 11 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A high school senior is shipped off to a sun-soaked Spanish village in order to secretly give birth then return like nothing has ever happened—but is that really the only option?
“The novel is a story about choices . . . but also about finding one’s self.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Delicate and luscious.”—Kathryn Erskine, author of National Book Award-winner Mockingbird
The future should be right within reach, but for Kenzie the future has suddenly been rearranged. It’s senior year, and while she should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she discovers she’s pregnant. Her mother sends her to Spain, where she will live out her pregnancy, and her child will be adopted by a Spanish couple. No one will ever know.
Alone in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first resentful. But as she gets to know the rough land and the mysterious people in it, she begins to open her eyes, and her heart, to the beauty that is around her, and inside her. Kenzie realizes she has some serious choices to make—choices about life, love, and home.
Lyrically told in a way that makes the heat, the colors, and the smells of Spain feel alive, Small Damages is a feast for the heart and the soul, and a novel not easily forgotten.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As Kenzie's senior year of high school begins, her beloved father dies suddenly. Her mother's coping mechanisms pack his things, start a business, join Match.com push Kenzie closer to her friend Kevin, and by spring, she's pregnant. Kenzie's mother's response (which feels more 1896 than 1996, when the story is set) is to arrange for Kenzie to move to a bull farm in southern Spain, where she'll work until the baby is born and given up for adoption. The wrinkle in this soulless plan is that Kenzie is conflicted; her story is written as a tender, honest letter to her unborn child. Kenzie arrives in Spain sullen and resentful she's chopping onions with Estela, the farm's cook, while her friends are at the Jersey Shore and the distance brings her predicament into sharp relief. Estela is a better mother than her biological one; Esteban, the teen in charge of horses, a more standup guy than Yale-bound Kevin. This beautifully written "summer of transformation" story will have readers feeling as torn about Kenzie's choice as she is. Ages 14 up.
