Twelve

Sold to fourteen publishers around the world and receiving tremendous critical acclaim, Twelve was one of the most significant literary debuts of the year. A chilling novel of urban adolescence, it appeared on The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, London Times, and Sydney Morning Herald best-seller lists, and on The New York Times extended list. Set among the privileged prep-school students of Manhattan's Upper East Side, Twelve follows White Mike, a dropout drug dealer, through the week between Christmas and New Year's 1999. Twelve is not a coming-of-age story, because its kids never had a childhood. Their parents are off on holiday in Bali or business in Brussels, leaving hired help to look the other way as the kids stay home alone in their multimillion-dollar town houses, partying with drugs and sex and, in the end, much worse. From page one, the pace is set toward an apocalyptic climax. In the penultimate party scene, when we thought we couldn't be surprised, we are shocked. And throughout the book, where there is an excess of everything but hope, we are filled with that very emotion as White Mike struggles for nothing less than his soul.