Tension arises in the love affair of a young artist for whom nothing is permanent and his girlfriend, a teacher who believes that things are meant to last, by the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist. This is a compelling love story between two very different young people: Collin, a disarming chalk artist who thinks nothing of erasing his dazzling work, and Nina, an idealistic teacher who struggles every day to make a lasting impact on her students. Wanting Collin to realize his full talent, Nina warily introduces him to her powerful father, who owns the most cutting edge virtual reality game company in the world. Add to this a brilliant but unstable pupil of Nina’s who is gaming obsessed, and you have contemporary life caught in the crosshairs by one of our most charming and socially astute literary voices.
Author
Hello, Good Readers! My new novel SAM is about a young girl's exuberance, wonder, and ambition as she comes of age. Jenna Bush Hager picked SAM for her Today Show book club and said, "Sam is about as perfect of a coming-of-age story as I have ever read." About me: I was born in Brooklyn, but I grew up in Honolulu. I now live in Cambridge, MA and I own boots. In addition to writing fiction, I read a lot and teach on occasion. In my free time, I swim and walk around the city. I have four children, now getting pretty grown up. My oldest son (an economist) reads everything. My second son (a law student and grad student in political theory) reads mostly non-fiction, although I try to get him to read novels. My third son (a college student) loves science fiction, fantasy, and history. My daughter (a college student and aspiring human centered designer) enjoys biography and novels—but only if they have exceptionally beautiful covers! I read fiction, biography, history, poetry, and books about art. I also enjoy discovering new authors in translation. When I was a seven-year-old living in Hawaii, I decided to become a novelist—but I began by writing poetry and short stories. In high school and college I focused on short stories, and in June, 1986, I published my first in "Commentary." My first book was a collection of short stories, "Total Immersion." My second book, "The Family Markowitz" is a short story cycle that people tend to read as a novel. Much of my work is about family in its many forms. I am also interested in religion, science, the threats and opportunities of technology, and the exploration of islands, real, and imaginary. My novel, "Kaaterskill Falls" travels with a group of observant Jews to the Catskill Mountains. "Intuition" enters a research a lab, where a young post-doc makes a discovery that excites everybody except for one skeptic—his ex-girlfriend. A rare collection of cookbooks stars in my novel, "The Cookbook Collector." A girl named Honor tries to save her mother in my dystopian YA novel, "The Other Side of the Island." With Michael Prince, I have co-authored a supercool writing textbook! If you teach composition, take a look at "Speaking of Writing: a Brief Rhetoric." If you'd like to learn more about me and about each of my books, check out my website: http://allegragoodman.com/ Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllegraGoodman Or on Instagram: @allegragoodmanwriter And of course, you can check out the reviews I post here on Goodreads!
