Author(s): Richard Zimler

Fiction

Teresa Silva is a witty, combative and maddeningly articulate 15-year-old who moves from the comfort of her Lisbon home to the New York suburbs. Unprepared for life in America she finds solace in her books, her unstoppable sense of humour and her father’s playful affection. Her only friend, Angel, is a gifted but awkward 16-yeard-old from Brazil who worships John Lennon and his music. When her beloved father dies, Teresa’s world comes undone. When Angel is beaten up by other students for being gay and flees to the streets of Manhattan, she decides to take the only way out that seems to make sense. With fierce irreverence, black humour and piercing insight, Zimler traces Teresa’s desperate and moving journey toward herself.