Aimee Benders stunning debut collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirtproved her to be one of the freshest voices in American fiction. Now in herfirst novel sh... » 

Aimee Benders stunning debut collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirtproved her to be one of the freshest voices in American fiction. Now in herfirst novel she builds on that early promise.Mona Gray was ten when her father contracted a mysterious illness and shebecame a quitter abandoning each of her talents just as pleasure becameintense. The only thing she cant stop doing is math She knocks on wood addsher steps and multiplies people in the park against one another. When Monabegins teaching math to secondgraders she finds a ready audience. But thedifficult and wonderful facts of life keep intruding. She finds herself drawnto the new science teacher who has an unnerving way of seeing through herintricately built faade. Bender brilliantly directs her characters giving themunexpected emotional depth and setting them in a calamitous world bothfancifully surreal and startlingly familiar. «