Del's lived in Los Angeles for seventeen years, bouncing among foster homes. Smart, sharp-tongued, and a master mimic, she's fed up with her world and with being Del. So she's changing her name and leaving both herself and L.A. behind — until her escape lands her in an all-day traffic jam.

Fast-forward eight years. It's opening night for the one-woman show Del has written and is starring in — a show called Breakout about a Los Angeles traffic jam.

As the novel flashes between Del's present and future, we get a backstage pass into this young playwright's psyche, watching her life being transformed into art, heartache into comedy, solitude into connection. And, finally, anger giving way to acceptance.

"Fleischman (Whirligig; Seek) explores the way art allows people to re-examine their lives, in this chronicle of a young woman who experiences an emotional breakthrough while stranded among strangers on the San Diego Freeway — and its contribution to her work onstage. The novel opens with the narrative of 17-year-old Audelia 'Del' Thigpen who, readers learn, has just faked her own drowning in order to escape her latest foster home; en route to Taos she becomes mired in a traffic jam. The narrative then fast-forwards eight years: Del has assumed the identity of Elena Franco, and is being interviewed in Denver as the star of a one-woman show centered on characters trapped in a traffic jam (she describes the piece as 'autobiography seen through weird, wavy glass'). The two narratives alternate, with a photo of a traffic tie-up and a photo of a microphone (plus differing type fonts) to indicate which is which. Splicing together related vignettes, as he has done successfully in the past, Fleischman here allows the real and imagined events to blend, supplementing and augmenting each other. This blending is both the novel's strength and its weakness. For instance, one of the most poignant moments occurs while the cars are at a standstill, and Del becomes intrigued with a performance artist who is interviewing various drivers about road rage; he ignores Del while interviewing a 'tank-topped twenty-something,' and Del's response points to her history of abandonment. But in other ways, because of the episodic presentation, readers learn little about her (e.g., the origins of her interest in films and books) so that when, at the close of her show, she finally relates her epiphany, it feels anticlimactic. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Fleischman's artful structure, distinctive voices, and carefully chosen details make this a splendid choice for teens on the verge of a breakout of their own."

-- School Library Journal, starred review

"A stunning tour de force."

-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

This National Book Award finalist is now in paperback. Growing up in foster care, Del pens a one-woman play about a Los Angeles traffic jam, providing readers with a backstage pass into a young playwright's psyche as her play parallels her own life.

Tired of bouncing from one foster home to another, a teenager fakes her own death and leaves L.A., only to get caught in an all-day traffic jam.