Fourteen-year-old Martha Kowalski is almost afraid to have high
hopes for her latest living situation. Her unstable mother has
finally sobered up, and the two of them have moved in with Wayne, a
man her mother met during rehab. Living in an overwhelmingly black
neighborhood in Cleveland, Martha begins a tentative friendship
with her upstairs neighbor, Jerome, and with his baby brother
Bubby. Both high-achieving, straight-A students, Jerome and Martha
head off to the first day of 10th grade, cautiously optimistic
about the future.

But when a violent bully, Chardonnay, chooses Martha as her
favorite target, Martha's school days almost immediately spiral out
of control into a pattern of threats, harassment and outright
danger. Finding little support at school and no support at home,
where Momma and Wayne's rocky relationship (and Wayne's violent
tendencies) continue to disrupt Martha's life, Martha finds solace
only in her newfound love and talent for playing the cello. Martha
is naturally gifted, and in her music she finds not only safety and
peace but also a connection to her late father, who played the
violin.

Just when her home life falls apart in the wake of a neighborhood
tragedy, Martha finds herself with the most unlikely foster family
--- the Brinkmans, a wealthy family who supply Martha with her own
room, a designer wardrobe and an heirloom cello (and the lessons to
go with it). At first her life with the Brinkmans seems like a
fairy tale, but soon Martha discovers that there are cracks in
their perfect façade and that even privileged families are
subject to loneliness and loss.

Debut author Jeannine Garsee is a nurse who has worked with
countless troubled youth and integrated their stories into her
first novel. Not surprisingly, the book’s true hero (apart
from Martha herself) is Zelda, the social worker who never gives
up, no matter how often Martha pushes her away. Martha herself is a
complex, sometimes unlikable character who makes mistakes and hurts
people, just as she herself has been hurt over and over
again.

Readers may find themselves wincing each time Martha makes a bad
choice, just as they may grow weary with the litany of violence,
illness and addiction that plagues all these characters' lives.
Garsee, however, knows her material well, and her relentlessly grim
approach is also clear-eyed and realistic (with the possible
exception of Martha's involvement with the Brinkmans). And, just
like real life, there are no tidy closures or happy endings here
--- just the satisfaction that comes when Martha finally opens her
eyes, learns to know herself, and follow her most passionate
desires and best interests.

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