About this item

An NPR Best Book of 2015 Love and sacrifice intertwine in this brilliant debut of rare beauty about a girl dealing with her mother's schizophrenia and her own mental illness.Fig's world lies somewhere between reality and fantasy. But as she watches Mama slowly come undone, it becomes hard to tell what is real and what is not, what is fun and what is frightening. To save Mama, Fig begins a fierce battle to bring her back. She knows that her daily sacrifices, like not touching metal one day or avoiding water the next, are the only way to cure Mama. The problem is that in the process of a daily sacrifice, Fig begins to lose herself as well, increasingly isolating herself from her classmates and engaging in self-destructive behavior that only further sets her apart.



About the Author

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz is a fiction writer living on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado in an old farmhouse surrounded by open sky, century-old cottonwoods and coyotes. Her first novel, FIG, debuted from Simon & Schuster in 2015 (the trade paperback came out in 2016) . The book was noted as a Best Read of 2015 by NPR and won the Colorado Book Award in 2016. Schantz is represented by Heather Schroder at Compass Talent. Schantz's website is: . If you are interessted in taking one of her creative writing workshops or working with her one-on-one, you can visit FIG is the story of a girl who grows up under the shadow of her schizophrenic mother in rural Kansas. This coming-of-age story tracks Fig, the protagonist, from age six to age nineteen--the age she fears she might inherit her mother's disease; Fig employs magical thinking as a means to avoid this fate, but in turn develops OCD. In the end, she must learn to separate her identity from the identity of her beloved mother. Schantz is available for readings and other events. She has a BA in Writing & Literature and a MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University. She collects Lotus slippers, Blue Willow, Edwardian-style nightgowns, fairy tales, Owl figures, and antique marbles. She loves to take a bath so laden with Epsom salts it becomes the sea, and every time the moon is full, she takes a long stroll in the silver light.



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