During the summer of 1983, Elaine and her daughters Hannah and Daisy move into Sunset Terrace, a squalid, low-rent apartment building in Los Angeles that houses single mothers. They have been on the road for three years, moving from town to town in a flight from tragedy ever since Hannah discovered her father dead in his study.

While Elaine struggles to make ends meet and construct a new life for herself in California, Hannah — a shy, lonely girl whose only companion in the shuffle of schools has been her pet turtle — develops an earnest affection for Bridget, a vivacious, foul-mouthed nine-year-old in apartment one who was abandoned as an infant in a supermarket parking lot. Now living with a foster family, Bridget quickly becomes Hannah's best friend, teaching her how to climb a chain-link fence and steal candy.

As the summer wears on, Elaine becomes captivated by Bridget as well, encouraging her to come over for dinner and sleepovers, taking on the role of a surrogate mother. Compelled by pity for the wayward girl, Elaine is blind to Bridget's dangerous influence on Hannah, who at the summer's end takes part in a malicious game that irrevocably alters the course of all of their lives.

Donner's writing is nothing short of gorgeous, alive to the intricate hostilities between girls and the tangled alliances among women. The compassion she summons for the desperately sad children in this book is nearly crushing in its intensity. This is a remarkable debut. Baltimore Sun

A family puts down roots in a hardscrabble Southern California apartment complex in this colorful, wonderfully realized first novel...Donner's finely observed portraits of the Sunset Terrace denizens (a Bible-thumping, saccharine, aggrieved mother of four; Bridget's impassive, wigged, Virginia Slims-smoking foster mother, who fascinates and terrifies Hannah) show a rare gift. Publishers Weekly

In SUNSET TERRACE, Donner has captured with painful accuracy the way that longing and love between little girls can get tangled until it becomes an impossible knot. This is a gripping story, told with compassion, humor, and a clarity of vision that marks the debut of a writer to watch. Dani Shapiro

This is a wonderful novel, exciting in so many ways: exploration of character, evocation of place, and an assured narrative that carries us swiftly and deeply to places in the heart and mind we experience as if for the first time. Nicholas Christopher

Compelled by pity for a wayward girl, Elaine is blind to Bridget's dangerous influence on her daughter, Hannah, who at the summer's end takes part in a malicious game that irrevocably alters the course of all of their lives.

Rebecca Donner was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and received degrees from U.C. Berkeley and Columbia University. She was the literary director of the Fiction Series at New York City's KGB Bar, and is the editor of On the Rocks: The KGB Bar Fiction Anthology.