The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire: A Novel

It's the summer of 1977 in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. He's quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again. She's trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to her notorious artist mother, and will have to deal with much worse after a drunken teenage party.

Both man and girl are going to have to grow up the hard way, and it's their unexpectedly tender connection - fraught with potential scandal - that may just help them do it. This provocative coming-of-age novel by the author of The Awful Mess: A Love Story asks the question: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right?