Growing up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the '70s and '80s, Linda Hammerick knows that she is different. She has strong, almost paralysing associations between words and tastes; she doesn't look like everyone else; and she isn't popular at school. She finds her way through life with the help of her great uncle 'Baby' Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend fat-thin-fat Kelly with whom she has been exchanging letters since they were seven. But then a tragedy and a revelation will make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Monique Truong was born in Vietnam and moved to the USA in 1975 as a child, shortly before the fall of Saigon. Her first novel,The Book of Salt,was shortlisted for theGuardianFirst Book Award, was a New York Times Notable Book and was critically acclaimed ('a rich, poetic feast'Guardian; 'a tart delight'Scotland on Sunday; 'recalls Ishiguro or Pat Barker'The Times;'highly original'Spectator).She lives in New York.

A beguilingly original Southern gothic family novel with a sharp and minty twist, by an acclaimed writer with a sensual, surprising imagination and a compelling way with words.