Description

---

It's tough to measure up to your parents' expectations. Imagine how much harder it would be if your mother told you that your biological father—whom you'd never met—was a Nobel prize-winning genius? What if, after years of testing and tutoring, you never showed that particular spark of brilliance? What if you found out that you'd been living a lie, and that the truth was darker than you could have imagined?

Does it matter who you come from? Or are we all just made from dust?

In Rune Michaels's most powerful novel yet, she examines the fragile emotions surrounding finding out who we are and what we’re made of.

About the Author

---

Rune Michaels studied psychology at the University of Iceland and at the University of Copenhagen. Her books include Genesis Alpha, The Reminder, and Nobel Genes. She lives with her family in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Praise For…

---

“Clever, intriguing, and captivating. I read it in one sitting and will be thinking about it for a long time. . . . I loved it.” —James Dashner, author of The Maze Runner

“Expectation meets hard-edged reality in this harrowing, heartbreaking but cautiously hopeful story. Beautifully and sensitively written . . . impossible for readers to forget." –Michael Cart, Booklist columnist, reviewer, and former president of YALSA

"Michaels explores dark themes with ruthless honesty. The narrative is spare, the characters are beautifully portrayed as multifaceted individuals, and the premise is grim and wholly plausible. YA novels about mental illness are not uncommon, but this one of a child who seems anonymous to the outside world, who is never named by the author, and whose fate isn't ultimately wrapped up in a tidy bow will leave readers unsettled. Hand this to teens who like Chris Crutcher and Ellen Hopkins..." - School Library Journal

Michaels (The Reminder) makes effective use of first-person narration to give readers a highly believable protagonist and a riveting, from-the-trenches look at what it is like to live with a parent who suffers from a serious mental illness. - PW, August 2, 2010