Cruel Beautiful World

Sixteen-year-old Lucy is drifting through her sophomore year of high school when her handsome English teacher takes an interest in her writing—and then in her. After Lucy and her teacher run off together, the teen's older sister, Charlotte, is devastated, unsure whether to pursue her college plans or stay with their adoptive mother, Iris, in the house Lucy left behind. It's 1969, a time when teenage girls were fleeing their conventional lives in search of peace and love. But Lucy's idyllic escape leads only to a lonely farmhouse where her older lover intends to keep her hidden until she turns 18. Lucy's narrative alternates with those of Charlotte and Iris, each of them grappling with sexuality, personal accomplishment, and the need to belong. Their individual tales are surprising, revealing the secret depths of each woman's interior life as well as characters' fledgling attempts to truly know one another. Leavitt ( Is This Tomorrow ; Girls in Trouble ) delivers another deeply introspective coming-of-age tale.