The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York, where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help and then everything changes.

“This novel is like a hand-painted Russian Easter egg, a Chinese sleeve piece done in blind stitch; painstaking, breathtaking beauty in miniature. [Moore] creates a gorgeous, terrifying picture.” —Washington Post Book World

“The extraordinarily talented Lorrie Moore presents the lives of Sils and Berie and the atmosphere of the upstate town they live in with a subtle, moving, and often outright brilliance.” —Los Angeles Times

Lorrie Moore is the author of the story collections Birds of America, Self-Help, and Like Life and the novels Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Anagrams. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.