All Souls

In 1997, at the distinguished Siddons School on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the school year opens with distressing news: Astra Dell is suffering from a rare disease. Astra's friends try to reconcile the sick girl's suffering with their own fierce longings and impetuous attachments. Car writes unsparing letters, which the dirty Marlene, in her devotion, then steals. Other classmates carry on: The silly team of Suki and Alex pursue Will Bliss while the subversive Lisa Van de Ven makes dates with Miss Wilkes. The world of private schools and privilege in New York City is funny, poignant, cruel, and at its heart is a sick girl, Astra Dell, "that pale girl from the senior class, the dancer with all the hair, the red hair, knotted or braided or let to fall to her waist, a fever and she consumed."  National Book Award Finalist Christine Schutt has created a wickedly original tale of innocence, daring and illness.

"Christine Schutt’s refreshingly strange novel All Souls is exciting evidence that she continues to push the boundaries of fiction … Schutt’s deft use of syntactical surprise and her delicious attention to the rhythm and sound of a sentence may strike fear in the plot-hungry hearts of some readers. But All Souls is less enigmatic than Florida, with plenty of straight-up storytelling."  -  Maud Casey, The New York Times Sunday Book Review